Finely executed in a style reflecting the European Modernist influences that were so dear to him, Alfred Pellan’s Buste de femme (1942) is in some ways the culmination of the formal research that he undertook during his stays in Paris, against a backdrop of tremendous global turmoil. Despite the war, which forced him to return to Québec in 1940, Pellan felt energized by the winds of change and modernity. In Buste de femme, he appropriates the style of Cubism and the palette of Matisse and applies them to his favourite subject: the female form. Solemn and timeless, his model is reminiscent of the subject of Picasso’s series Femmes assises. Her three-quarter pose lends dynamism to the flat planes of colour that, outlined in thick, black strokes, give the portrait its expressive power, also evident in her broad shoulders and dignified expression. Her strands of pearls hang down over her flowered blazer and are echoed in the whirlwind of the wallpaper behind her, whose fragments and motifs transcend all Euclidean space.
In 1941, Pellan left his studio on rue Sainte-Famille, which he shared with Philip Surrey, and moved into a space at 3714 rue Jeanne-Mance, near the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, where two years later he would be hired as a professor—a position that he found tremendously rewarding. His art career took off during this period: notably, he exhibited at the Galerie municipale du Palais Montcalm (Québec City), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and the Art Association of Montreal (which later became the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts). His works travelled to Toronto, Boston, and New York, as well as to Florida and Connecticut. A first monograph devoted to his work was also published.
