Lot 16: Fernand Leduc 1916 - Canadian oil on canvas board

Fernand Leduc 1916 - Canadian oil on canvas board Composition 15 3/4 x 19 7/8 inches 40 x 50.5 centimeters signed and dated 1949 and on verso titled on a label and inscribed ""738 R.C. Leduc"" on a label Literature:Jean-Pierre Duquette, Fernand Leduc, 1980, page 16 Provenance:Galerie R. Creuze, Paris Private Collection, Montreal Exhibited:Galerie R. Creuze, Paris, Riopelle - Leduc, May 26 - June 10, 1950 In the 1940s, Fernand Leduc played a crucial role in the emergence and awakening of an artistic avant-garde in Quebec. Jean-Pierre Duquette writes, "Leduc was the first to speak of the necessity of forming a group and the first to propose a collective manifesto. He played a principal role in the development of the ideas of the Automatistes between 1943 and 1947." With the formation of this group, the power of evolution had been seized by Quebec painters. Following the second Automatist exhibition in Montreal, Leduc left for France in 1947, returning only periodically to Montreal. That same year, Leduc took part in the show Automatisme at the Galerie du Luxembourg in Paris, which showed works by six of the group's artists. This superb and rare oil dated 1949 was part of the exhibition titled Riopelle - Leduc at Galerie R. Creuze in Paris in 1950. Rooted in Automatism, the work presents vertical objects detaching themselves from the background - a formula found in the work of Paul-Émile Borduas - but by using the palette knife both in the background and in the objects Leduc gave an immediacy to the whole surface of the painting. He achieves a complex interrelation of space, depth and gesture through his expressive and lyrical use of brush and palette knife.