MAURICE GALBRAITH CULLEN

 

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Maurice Galbraith Cullen (1866-1934) was a pioneer of impressionist of Canada. He is best known for his winter landscapes. He first enrolled at Montreal's Institut National des Beaux-Arts et des Sciences. In 1888, he travelled to Paris and studied at École des Beaux-Arts. In Paris he saw Impressionists’ art, especially of Claude Monet. On returning to Canada, he began to draw local snow-scapes with own versions of Impressionist technique. He began painting en plein air.

Cullen travelled to the Rocky Mountains, France, Italy, North Africa and the Netherlands for his art. He began to experiment with light affecting the snow-covered terrain. He was very sensitive to the momentary variations in upon the terrain. He used pastels with pen and ink. Cullen made his own pastels from earths and other pigments and they were usually fixed to prevent the smudging.

His paintings have a sense of serenity. He relied less on the fuzzy effect of the French impressionists and used ‘sharp clarity of the Canadian atmosphere’.

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