signed & dated lower right
Provenance: Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal QC (Cullen Inv. No. 154); Canadian Fine Arts, Toronto ON; Masters Gallery, Calgary AB
Maurice Galbraith Cullen was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and moved with his family to Montreal as a boy. At age fourteen, while working as a sales clerk, he began his formal art education, training at the Institut National des Beaux-Arts et Sciences, and privately with sculptor Louis-Philippe Hebert. In 1887, an inheritance from his mother allowed Cullen to move to France to further his studies. In Paris, he trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and at the Academies Julian and Colarossi. Here, Cullen was taught in the traditional French academic style of painting, though he was drawn to Impressionism and the Barbizon School. While in France, he met several fellow Canadian artists, including James Wilson Morrice and William Brymner, who became his sketching partners. During these years, Cullen spent his summers in the French countryside and sketching the Brittany Coast, often in the company of Morrice. Cullen exhibited at the Paris Salon and become an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux-arts. Cullen returned to Montreal in 1895 and opened a studio, soon exhibiting with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Art Association of Montreal. In 1900, Cullen embarked on his last major painting trip overseas. He spent the following two years painting at numerous locations, including Brittany, Venice, Florence, Southern France and North Africa. This work dates from this time period, and depicts a coastal scene in Brittany, an area Cullen enjoyed revisiting. Brittany was an important artistic centre, drawing artists from around the world, who appreciated the area for its rugged scenery, traditional customs and artistic camaraderie.
