Skip to main content

Artist in Residence

Percé has always exerted a strong pull on artists. Artists and their work helped promote the region to generations of travellers long before photography. Canada’s early landscape painters often made the trek east to discover the Gaspé region. Soon after the Intercolonial Railway inaugurated regular service, artist Lucius O’Brien was among the first landscape painters to visit. Others followed, like Philadelphia painter Frederic James, who built a villa in Percé in 1886, the large windows in his studio embracing the light. The villa James is still perched precariously overlooking the Rocher Percé, testimony to this artist’s love of the landscape and its wild beauty.

Black and white photograph of the artist Suzanne Guité working on a drawing with her husband as model, artist Alberto Tommi. The couple is sitting at the foot of a tree on top of a mountain. Behind them is a magnificent landscape at the bottom of the mountain the village of Percé as well as Percé Rock.

New York fashion photographer Lida Moser captured artist Suzanne Guité at work on a portrait of her husband Alberto Tommi in 1950 from the viewpoint of Percé from the Pic de l’Aurore.

 

In the 20th century, the Gaspé attracted a new generation of artists – photographers, painters and thinkers. New York photographer Paul Strand was captivated by the haunting poverty of the villages. His friend Georgia O’Keeffe painted the simple white barns. Paul-Émile Borduas and André Breton made Percé their home for intense periods of artistic creation. Their work perpetuates the memory of their time as artists in residence.

Artists and amateurs alike have found something compelling, whether it be the striking landscapes or the photogenic inhabitants. When does an amateur become an artist? Albums by tourists tell the story of the person behind the lens and document what visitors found significant and worth remembering. Tourists have left a photographic legacy of envelopes bulging with images. There is a new interest in amateur photography – the photography of everyday life that documents people and places.

Portrait of George Parmenter. The elderly man, dressed in a jacket and tie, stands with his camera in his hand, near a white post on which it is written M224. In the background the beach of Sainte-Flavie and the sea.

George Parmenter’s photo albums were compiled after a trip to the Gaspésie in 1947

 

With its photogenic landscapes, the Gaspésie is one of the most photographed destinations in Quebec