Maurice Galbraith Cullen
The Blizzard, Craig Street, Montreal
1912
oil on canvas
76.4 x 102 cm
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Photo: Jean-Guy Kérouac

After studying in Paris from 1888 to 1895, Maurice Cullen returned to Quebec. Under the influence of Impressionism, he was able to adapt the language of that school to ways of representing the Canadian winter, as did his fellow countryman Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté. In 1909 Cullen began to paint scenes of snow-covered Montréal. The Blizzard, Craig Street, Montreal is a fine study of light in a blizzard that makes the urban landscape disappear and blurs the outlines of things. The horses painted by Cullen lose their materiality, but gain energy through contrast with the luminous background in the painting.