Space, Place, and a Race That Will Not Die - Literature and Painting in Quebec: From Imagery to Identity - page 158

6.2 Clarence Gagnon (1881-1942), L'église de Péribonka , composition de la
page 1 pour 'Maria Chapdelaine ' de Louis Hémon (Paris: Éditions Mornay,
1933). Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Photo: Patrick Altman / Church
at Péribonka , composition of page 1 of 'Maria Chapdelaine' by Louis Hémon
(Paris: Éditions Mornay, 1933). Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Photo:
Patrick Altman.
to emphasize the vertical thrust of the steeple, positioned at the centre
and nestled within the interlocking diagonals formed by the descending
slope and fence to its left and sleigh path to its right. While the symmet-
rical blocks of forest are diminished and pushed to the sides, the cen-
trally positioned houses of bright, varied colours lend the scene a warm,
lively, and optimistic note, 7 stressed by Silvie Bernier in her comparison
of the ideologies implicit in the illustrations of Suzor-Coté and Gagnon:
'Si la composition profonde de l'œuvre de Suzor-Côté donne l'image
d'une société figée qui cherche à préserver l'état des choses, celle de
Clarence Gagnon repose au contraire sur un système de valeurs qui fait
du changement, de l'evolution, un principe dominant.' ('L'illustration,'