Scene on Kingsey Lake

About Scene on Kingsey Lake

This impressionist oil landscape of a lake is by an important French Canadian artist.

The superb artwork of Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté hangs in the National Gallery of Canada. He was highly regarded by collectors and critics as a talented painter, sculptor and church decorator. This Quebec born artist was known to be one of the first Canadian artists to be inspired by the French Impressionists.
He did, however, develop his own distinct visual language focusing on light and atmosphere, vivid colour palettes and lyrical brushwork. Suzor-Coté’s chosen subjects included historical events, nudes and landscapes. This impressionistic oil on board of Kinsey Lake in Quebec captures a moody scene in expressive brushstrokes. The gray-blue of the lake is framed by billowing white clouds and earthy coloured trees and bushes along the shore. Flashes of turquoise-blue in the sky and lake add visual contrast.

“I have worked hard and applied myself wholeheartedly as a painter can when he loves his art, is totally absorbed by it and makes it the purpose of his life.”
Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté

“He was a ‘painter national par excellence,’ as proclaimed by *La Presse* in 1929.”

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté was born in a small town in Quebec (1869-1927). A baritone singer, he studied music at the Conservatory of Music in Paris in 1890. He also studied both painting and sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts and later at Académie Julian and The Académie Colarossi. His first exhibit of paintings was in 1894 in France. Upon returning to Canada in 1908, he established a studio in Montreal where he created both paintings—historical, nudes, portraits and landscapes as well as sculpture. He was made an Officer of the Academy of France in 1901, a rare and prestigious honor. Suzor-Coté also became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Canadian Art Club. He exhibited widely during his lifetime in both his home province and in Ontario and his work is held in both public and private collections. A major retrospective of his work was organized by the Musée du Québec and the National Gallery of Canada in 2002.