Subseries

This
subseries contains Clarence A. Gagnon's personal and professional
correspondence. There are 78 letters in all, including 17 letters written by
Gagnon (13 transcriptions and 4 handwritten letters), 2 postcards and 3
telegrams. Spanning a large part of Gagnon's career, these missives document
his many relationships and his fame in Canada, Europe and the United States.

The
subseries notably includes several letters from museums and government
institutions chronicling the artist's professional involvement in these various
organizations. The list includes, but is not limited to, a letter from the Art
Museum of Toronto (later called the Art Gallery of Toronto and now known as the
Art Gallery of Ontario) (1915) about engravings loaned for the Canadian
National Exhibition in Toronto, a letter (1925) from the Canadian committee
working on the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley about expenses the artist
incurred as part of his mandate, and two letters from Eric Brown of the
National Gallery of Canada (1927). There are several exchanges about the loan
of a painting belonging to the Provincial Museum of Quebec (now called the
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec), including a vitriolic letter from Gagnon
in response to curator Pierre George Roy's refusal (1937). The subseries also
contains four letters from the Institut canadien de Quebec (1938) in which it
invites Gagnon to give a lecture and exhibit his illustrations for Maria
Chapdelaine, along with letters from Montreal mayor Camillien Houde and
Susan Tweedsmuir thanking him for his contributions during the royal visit of
1939. Several communications document the demand for the painter's work,
including one from the Carnegie Institute (1925) and a telegram from Athanase
David (1920) on behalf of the provincial government.

In
addition, the subseries chronicles Gagnon's personal and professional
relationships with other artists of his era. In particular, there are four
letters from "Père Raquette" (Alexander Young Jackson) (1925-1935)
that Gagnon received when he was living in France, which recount the latest
news about his colleagues back in Canada. The subseries also includes a letter
from Edwin Holgate (1926), two letters from Albert H. Robinson (1930-1934), two
copies of a letter from Gagnon to Fred Hutchison (1935), along with five
letters from Alexander Young Jackson (ca 1926-ca 1933) and one letter from
Frances Loring (1932) that inform him of rivalries within the Royal Canadian
Academy of Arts. Moreover, the subseries contains a note from French artist
Roger Reboussin (1927), asking to meet Gagnon.

The
correspondence documents more personal topics as well. There are ten letters
sent by Gagnon over several decades (1916-1935) to Dr. Euloge Tremblay, in
which he describes his activities in France and at Wembley and asks for news of
Baie-Saint-Paul. He also shares his impressions of the various areas of Europe
he is visiting and, in a letter from 1934, mentions some rumours about the
coming war. Finally, the subseries contains six missives (1920-1929) from
Armand Dayot, the founder and editor of the French journal L’Art et les
artistes, which chronicle the friendship between the two men and Dayot's
interest in Canadian art.