Maurice Cullen (artist)

Maurice Cullen RCA (June 6, 1866 – March 28, 1934) is considered to be the father of Canadian Impressionism.^[1] He is best known for his paintings of snow and his depictions of ice harvest scenes, featuring horse-drawn sleighs traveling across the frozen waters of Quebec during winter. The Laurentians were his greatest love and he painted there often. He excelled in painting crisp northern light.^[2]

Life and work

Cullen was born in St. John's, Newfoundland Colony.^[3] His parents were James Cullen of St. John’s and Sarah Galbraith Ward of Montreal. In 1870 his family moved to Montreal, Quebec where he began his art training studying sculpture at the Conseil des Arts et Manufactures and with the sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert at the Monument National.^[4][5]

Maurice Cullen went to Paris in 1889 to study sculpture on the advice of Hébert. He entered the

Although he received academic training, he was influenced in his painting by the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet and, as early as 1891, critics gave positive reviews to his Impressionist-influenced work. In 1895, the French Government purchased a painting entitled Été from the Société's annual salon (now at the Musée de Pithiviers) and he was elected an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts – the first Canadian to be so honoured.^[7]

However, in 1895,, he returned to Montreal and made it his home, turning from French subjects to Canadian ones, with an emphasis on snowscapes and using a modified Impressionist technique.

William Robinson Watson (1887–1973) in Montreal, of Watson Art Gallery, represented Cullen and published a book on him in 1931.^[10] An exhibition, Legacies of Impressionism in Canada: Three Exhibitions, was held from January 31 to April 19, 2009 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2019, the National Gallery of Canada travelling show, Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons, opened in Munich. It came to the National Gallery of Canada in 2022.

Selected works

• 
  The Mill Stream (ca 1905), National Gallery of Canada.
• 
  Customs Port, Venice (1897), National Gallery of Canada
• 
  Rising Tide, Le Pouldu, Bretagne (1901), Musée des beaux-arts du Québec
• 
  Snowfall, Lac Tremblant (1922) Private Collection
• 
  Winter Evening, Quebec (ca 1905), National Gallery of Canada
• 
  Ile d'Orleans landscape, Musée de la civilisation, Quebec
• 
  No Man's Land (Douai plain, France) (1920), Canadian War Museum

Honours

• First Canadian to be elected associate member of Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895^[11]
• Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, elected full member 1907^[12]
• Bronze medal, Canadian exhibition at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904^[11]
• Awarded Jessie Dow Prize,
  Art Association of Montreal, 1911, 1913^[11]
• Elected first vice-president of Arts Club, Montreal (founded at his studio), 1912[11]
• He was declared a
  Canadian Person of National Historic Significance in 1944.^[13]

• Canadian official war artists

Notes

Bibliography

• Antoniou, Sylvia (1982). Maurice Cullen: 1866-1934. Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Centre.
  ISBN 0889113696
  . Retrieved 2020-06-13.
• Bruce, Tobi; Cable, Patrick Shaw (2011). The French Connection: Canadian Painters at the Paris Salons 1880-1900. Hamilton, Ontario: Art Gallery of Hamilton. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
• Davis, Ann (1992). The Logic of Ecstasy: Canadian Mystical Painting, 1920–1940. Toronto:
  ISBN 9780802068613; OCLC 26256269
• Lowrey, Carol, Visions of Light and Air: Canadian Impressionism, 1885–1920, Americas Society, 1996.
• Prakash, A.K. (2015). Impressionism in Canada: A Journey of Rediscovery. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers. pp. 266–295.
  ISBN 978-3-89790-427-9
  .

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