The Ferry, Quebec

About The Ferry, Quebec

This historical serigraph is by an important Canadian modernist named James Wilson Morrice.

The acclaimed modernist art of James Wilson Morrice is prized by collectors around the globe. He is considered a legacy artist often credited for bringing impressionism to Canada. Morrice studied art in France and became enamoured with the avant-garde stylings of the Impressionists and the Fauvists. He often painted alongside the famous Fauvist, Henri Matisse, who became a friend.
Morrice’s work captured everyday life in many places in the world including Europe, the Caribbean and in his home province of Quebec. Known for his expressive atmospheric landscapes, this vibrant and charming serigraph
(a high quality fine art screen print) is a snapshot of a ferry crossing icy turquoise-blue waters in winter. The palette is appropriately restrained-gray skies and white hills in the distance providing a backdrop to the channel. In the foreground sits a red-roofed building on a snow-covered pier where several horses and people are waiting.

“James Wilson Morrice ... had the unique ability to acknowledge his experience of life and in his paintings to distill a moment into that which is eternal. His remarkable talent was so pronounced that the leading French art critic Louis Vauxcelles noted in 1909 that, since James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Morrice was the first North American painter to have obtained a notable place in the international world of art.” National Gallery of Canada

James Wilson Morrice was born into a wealthy Montreal family. (1865-1924).
He attended law school and although called to the bar, he became so interested in art that he chose to pursue that profession instead. Largely self-taught, his first exhibits were at the Royal Canadian Art Association and the Art Association of Montreal. During the First World War he was one of Canada’s official war artists. In 1890, he moved to Paris which would become his permanent home. Morrice studied at a Paris Art School--the Académie Julian and later worked with Henri Harpignies, a renowned French landscape painter. A charismatic fellow, he regularly exhibited in the ‘salons’ in Paris and his impressionistic works became wildly popular throughout Europe. Morrice also exhibited in London, Brussels, Scotland and the United States. He was notably the first Canadian artist to exhibit at the prestigious Venice Biennale. James Wilson Morrice died in Tunisia in 1924. His works are held in private collections and in the public collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada.