River of Dreams: Impressionism on the St. Lawrence

This past summer, I had the opportunity to visit the extensive exhibition of Quebec Impressionists at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The exhibition, entitled, River of Dreams: Impressionism on the St. Lawrence, featured approximately 150 paintings by Quebec artists and was initially shown at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. It was a revelation to see this exhibition, not only for its sheer scale but for the way it illuminated a chapter of Canadian art history that, until then, I had scarcely encountered.

The idea for the exhibition began with Anne-Marie Bouchard, lead curator of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Quebec City, who worked alongside Sarah Milroy, Chief Curator at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, over a significant period of time to bring this project together. The timing was fortuitous: the Riopelle Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec was scheduled for extensive rebuilding, which meant many works from the permanent collection would otherwise have been placed in storage. Exhibiting these works to a broader audience seemed a far more fruitful option. As Milroy noted in her presentation at the McMichael, “It is the first large-scale exhibition exclusively devoted to Quebec Impressionists ever to be mounted in English Canada.” This statement alone underscores the historical importance of this undertaking.

During the time of the Quebec Impressionists, the transformative impact of industrialization was deeply felt, particularly in Montreal and Quebec City – Montreal being the largest city in Canada at the time. The rapid pace of modernization also clashed with the rhythms of traditional rural life, reshaping agrarian landscapes and challenging the enduring influence of the Church in local communities. This tension between progress and tradition is articulated in the visual language of the Quebec Impressionists. Through personal depictions of rural and urban life and landscapes positioned against emerging modernity, the River of Dreams exhibition captures this pivotal moment of societal change.

At the same time that industrialization was spreading into North America, a significant art movement was emerging in Europe, particularly in France. French Impressionism, as we know, is characterized by its subjective approach to painting—capturing the immediate and the personal, often en plein aire—with a liberating brushstroke and a juxtaposition of contrasting colours. Painting from nature was central to this movement, and the Impressionists were famously fascinated by the effect of light on objects at different times of day. The Quebec Impressionists, most of them having studied in France, absorbed these principles but adapted them to their own environment. They often painted outdoors. Their winter sketches, sometimes executed in sub-zero temperatures, with stiffening paint and freezing hands, were later rendered into larger paintings indoors. Painting and sketching outdoors shaped their emerging style. In particular, their work reflects a unique perspective on how light interacts with snow, and this is evident in the numerous winter landscapes featured in River of Dreams. These paintings do not merely imitate French Impressionism; they transform it, embedding it in the rhythms and realities of Quebec life and the Quebec landscape.

One figure stands out as pivotal in bringing the French Impressionist approach to Quebec: William Brymner (1855–1925), an artist and teacher whose influence reverberates throughout the exhibition. Scottish-born and widely travelled in Europe and across Canada, Brymner studied in Paris during the rise of the Impressionist movement and absorbed its modernist tendencies, though his own work never fully embraced their approach. He taught at the Art Association of Montreal for three decades, and among his students were Clarence Gagnon, Maurice Cullen, James Wilson Morrice, Henrietta Mabel May, and, worth noting, A.Y. Jackson of the Group of Seven. Brymner encouraged his students to study in Europe, particularly Paris, and to paint directly from nature, and to experiment with light and color. In doing so, he helped bridge European Impressionist practices with the evolving identity of Canadian art and the Quebec painters of that time. His approach shifted artists away from studio-bound practices toward a more intimate connection with the Quebec landscape and culture, fostering a generation of painters who would define Quebec Impressionism.

As this movement took shape, each artist forged a distinct visual language to express their relationship with the region’s culture and landscape, while also documenting the social transformations of their time.

Maurice Cullen (1866–1934) is best remembered for his winter scenes of Montreal and rural Quebec. His atmospheric use of colour and light transforms ordinary labour into something almost lyrical. Among his most compelling works are the ice-harvesting paintings—images of a winter industry that once sustained Quebec’s pre-modern economy. Before refrigeration, cutting and storing ice from the St. Lawrence was essential for food preservation, linking rural labour to urban life. Today, these paintings serve as cultural documents, preserving the memory of a vanished practice. Yet they are far more than historical records: rendered in a fluid, impressionistic style, Cullen’s dynamic compositions evoke the physical sensation of living and working in the Canadian winter, where moonlight shines across the whiteness of the snow and smog and smoke hang in the icy air.

Clarence Gagnon (1881–1942) turned his gaze to the pastoral beauty of the Charlevoix region, producing vibrant landscapes that idealized rural life at a time when industrialization threatened traditional rhythms. His crisp brushwork and luminous palette evoke a world in harmony with nature, reinforcing a nationalist vision of Quebec and Canada. Gagnon studied in Paris and travelled extensively, across Canada and Europe. Yet his love for the Charlevoix area endured throughout his career, resulting in numerous works that celebrate the region’s seasonal transformations. His idyllic winter scenes and depictions of the Charlevoix region were highly sought after both locally and in Paris, and he achieved significant financial success during his lifetime.

Robert W. Pilot (1897-1967), the prodigious, prolific stepson of Maurice Cullen, often joined Cullen on sketching trips in the Quebec countryside when he was still very young. Showing significant talent at a very young age, William Brymner supported his attendance at the Art Association of Montreal School, where he connected with others who were emerging in the Quebec Impressionist approach. Pilot proved to be a very sensitive artist. Like Cullen and Gagnon, he not only documented the evolving Quebec landscape, but his paintings evoked an emotional resonance with a period defined by both uncertainty and hope. While in his early 20s, he was already exhibiting his work in well-recognized galleries in Montreal and, notably, was part of the well-documented inaugural exhibition of the Group of Seven at the  Art Gallery of Toronto in May 1920. Yet he remained deeply rooted in Quebec.. His small, energetic works often carry a brooding undertone, perhaps shaped by his experiences in World War I and by the looming shadow of industrialization.

James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) often accompanied Cullen and Brymner, and quite possibly the young Pilot, on rural painting expeditions. However, in contrast to Cullen, Gagnon, and Brymner’s rural romanticism, Morrice’s style was closer to the French impressionists (showing particular influence of the Barbizon school in France). Applying quick painting techniques, he completed numerous outdoors renderings in winter. Many of his paintings were focussed on the St Lawrence River around Quebec City, often painting in the brutal cold. Morrice studied in France and ended up spending much of his adult life there, often returning to Quebec for brief periods of time. We can see in his painting an economic approach to capturing the moment. He forgoes any contrast of light and dark, and eschews details related to realism in favour of fleeting impressions while edging toward abstraction. And yet, as Katerina Atanassova notes in the catalogue for the exhibition, Morrice’s works offer “an immersive feeling of winter.” Morrice’s winter scenes were viewed very favourably in France, appealing to a sense of the romantic view of the colonized country.

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (1869–1937) was one of Quebec’s most celebrated painters in his time and was a highly successful commercial artist, whose work was valued not only in Quebec but across Canada and in the United States. He studied in Paris in the 1890s, mainly disciplining himself to the Impressionist exploration of light in nature. Suzor-Coté often painted the same scene repeatedly, seeking to capture the subtle changes created by sunlight. He brought this technical mastery to the Canadian landscape, infusing life and warmth into the cold stillness of rural winter. In The Thaw, March, Evening in Arthabaska, a view of the agrarian countryside near his birthplace in Arthabaska (now Victoriaville), the setting sun glows on melting snow and ice, suffusing the scene with a warm yellow-orange radiance in a moment of transcendence.

Henrietta Mabel May (1877–1971) expands the narrative beyond rural and industrial themes. Her painting, Knitting (1915), created during World War I, situates Impressionism within the domestic sphere, foregrounding women’s contributions to sustaining family and community life. In this painting, May’s luminous colours and loose brushwork bring together a modern approach to painting and a traditional domestic craft, which challenges the hierarchies that existed in art of public over private spheres and thereby broadening the scope of cultural representation. May’s painting from that time signal the emergence of women artists within a male-dominated art world, marking a subtle yet significant shift in Quebec’s cultural landscape.

Another female artist, included in this exhibition, is Alice Des Keyes (1890-1968), who painted dramatic and commercially successful street market scenes. She was an active and well-recognized artist of the Montreal art scene until she returned to Scotland. Her vibrant street market scenes captured Montreal’s urban energy.

Ozias Leduc (1864–1955) lived a life that was close to his Catholic beliefs. His deeply spiritual works stand apart from the largely secular tone of Quebec Impressionism. Leduc’s paintings, such as Green Apples, invite contemplation, drawing viewers into a world of quiet transcendence. His religious art offers a contrasting perspective to the broader movement, which often prioritized commercial success and secular themes.

This spiritual dimension found in Leduc’s paintings brings us to what I see as an intriguing omission. A few years earlier, the Art Gallery of Ontario hosted Mystical Landscapes: From Van Gogh to Carr, an immense exhibition that explored the intersection of art and spirituality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The exhibition placed a significant emphasis on French Impressionism and Canadian painters, bringing together a new wave of spirituality of the time that was connected, sometimes loosely, to the Theosophy movement. That exhibition included, among many world-renowned artists, the work of Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson, and A. Y. Jackson (a student of William Brymner), and other members of the Group of Seven, as well as other Canadian artists. The tenets of Theosophy encompass a subjective and collective approach to the spiritual realm, as well as a sense of oneness with nature and the universe. None of the artists from the Quebec Impressionists were included in that exhibition. This absence is telling. It suggests a schism between English-speaking Canadian art, which embraced a mystical, theosophical view, and Quebec Impressionism, which remained largely secular and commercially oriented. Yet, Ozias’s Leduc is the exception: his work embodies a spiritual vision rooted not in Theosophy but in Catholic tradition. His contemplative paintings remind us that Quebec’s cultural identity was negotiated not only through economic and technological change but also through enduring and questioning commitment to faith.

The River of Dreams exhibition offers more than a survey of artistic innovation. It is a visual chronicle of Quebec—and, by extension, Canada—at a moment of profound transformation. Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, industrialization, urbanization, and global artistic trends challenged the province’s agrarian roots and Catholic heritage. Quebec Impressionists responded by crafting a language of light and colour that was at once local and universal, nostalgic and forward-looking. Their paintings document not only the physical landscape but also the cultural tensions of a society poised between tradition and modernization.

As an Anglophone from London, Ontario, I write this with a certain degree of embarrassment. Before encountering this exhibition, my knowledge of these artists was negligible. Yet they played a vital role in shaping Canadian art, opening new ways of seeing the landscape and profoundly influencing future generations of painters, particularly the Group of Seven. Each artist mentioned above was singularly dedicated to creating a body of work that stands as both a historical and cultural statement – one that deserves more recognition.

Nida Home Doherty is publisher and owner of Centred.ca Magazine. She lives in Montreal and in London, Ontario.

Photo Credit: Nida Home Doherty Images taken at the River of Dreams exhibition, Fredericton, New Brunswick, 2025.