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Hotel Tadoussac by Paul Archibald Caron

Artwork by Paul Archibald Caron, Hotel Tadoussac

Paul A. Caron
Hotel Tadoussac

oil on canvas
signed lower right
10.75 x 8.75 ins ( 27.3 x 22.2 cms )

Auction Estimate: $1,500.00$1,200.00 - $1,500.00

Price Realized $1,495.00
Sale date: May 25th 2017

Provenance:
Gift of the Artist to Hotel Tadoussac (1930s)
Frederick Brown, hotel manager (circa 1930-1952)
By descent to the current Private Collection, Quebec
Literature:
“French Canada Pictures of Paul Caron,” Montreal Daily Star, December 13, 1933
The Quebec town of Tadoussac dates back as far as Jacques Cartier's September 1535 arrival to the American continent. The fur trade began in the early 1600s; Tadoussac served as the first trading post established in the territory of Canada as well as the first ocean port on the St. Lawrence Valley. Following a thriving lumber industry in the 1800s, the construction of Hotel Tadoussac in 1864 marks the emergence of Tadoussac as a vacation destination. Paul Caron created this canvas when he visited the popular summer destination in the 1930s. The painting was presented to the hotel as a gift, and then passed down to the current owner through a relative, who was the manager of Hotel Tadoussac during the 1930s and 1940s. The artwork illustrates and documents this historical piece of architecture just prior to its demolition in 1941 (it has since been rebuilt in a similar style). This charming oil painting, full of intricate details depicting the joys of summer vacation, exemplifies Paul Caron's excellent portrayals of Quebec urban and rural life. A 1933 “Montreal Daily Star” review of Caron's work declares that “...There are no pictures which give a better idea of a certain side of the life of French Canada.”

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Paul Archibald Caron
(1874 - 1941) ARCA

HighlightsWatch Artist

Born in Montreal, Quebec, he studied drawing and painting under William Brymner, Maurice Cullen and Edmond Dyonnet at the school of the Art Association of Montreal. He worked 11 years in the stained glass industry making drawings for ornaments and figures and then for “La Presse” and the “Montreal Star” doing pen and ink drawings.

He was a designer and illustrator for magazines but eventually turned to full time painting particularly of old buildings and ancient areas of Montreal and Quebec City. He favoured winterscapes and painted many rural scenes in the Laurentians of which several were reproduced on Christmas cards. He worked in water colour using only distilled water and took great care in the selection of his materials to insure permanency.

He exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy and the spring shows of the Art Association of Montreal; Ontario Society of Artists, and the Fine Arts Section of the Canadian National Exhibition. He won the Jessie Dow prize for water colours in 1931 and 1937.

His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of the Province of Quebec. He was a member of the Pen and Pencil Club, Montreal; The Arts and Letters Club, Montreal; The Canadian Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers; The Canadian Society of Graphic Art; and the Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA 1939). He is represented in the collection of the National Gallery by one of his Montreal street scenes. Four of his beautiful oils decorated Blodwen Davies' “Saguenay”.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977