Marcel Lareau – Mid-Century European Harbor Scene – Original 24x20 Oil on Canvas
This original Marcel Lareau oil painting (24x20 in.) is an outstanding example of the artist’s celebrated mid-century European harbor scenes. Painted with Lareau’s signature palette-knife technique, the piece features richly layered textures, expressive coastal architecture, and atmospheric reflections that define his internationally collected style.
Acquired in Europe, the painting captures a working waterfront at dusk—complete with fishing boats, weathered buildings, and softly glowing skies—all hallmarks of Lareau’s mid-century artistic period. His mastery of color, impasto, and composition makes this a standout addition for collectors of maritime art, Canadian modernism, and European impressionist landscapes.
This painting is signed lower right and remains in excellent vintage condition.
Title: Harbor at Dusk (working title)
Artist: Marcel Lareau (Canadian, 1926–2016)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Origin: Acquired in Europe
Signature: Lower right, “Marcel Lareau”
This atmospheric oil painting by Marcel Lareau captures a quiet, working waterfront, rendered in his signature semi-impressionist style. The scene is built with strong linear elements, richly textured palette-knife strokes, and a moody tonal range of umbers, olive greens, and weathered grays. Boats rest in a luminous, reflective harbor while sun-bleached industrial buildings fade into a soft mist, expressing both nostalgia and movement.
Lareau’s surface treatment is particularly notable: impasto layers carve dimensional ridges across the canvas, creating tactile highlights that shift with changing light. The painting’s palette and composition date stylistically to the mid-century European modern tradition, when Lareau frequently painted ports, canals, markets, and old working districts with expressive vigor.
Marcel Lareau (1926–2016) was a Canadian painter known for his textured, expressive depictions of harbors, European street scenes, and rural villages. Born in Montréal, Quebec, Lareau grew up in an environment rich in both French-Canadian and European artistic traditions. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, one of the most prestigious training grounds for classical and modern painters in Quebec.
Lareau’s influences include:
The Barbizon School, for its naturalistic rural scenes
Post-Impressionist color harmonies
Modern European palette-knife painters of the 1940s–1960s
The maritime realism of artists such as Eugène Boudin and Montague Dawson
Beginning in the 1950s, Lareau exhibited widely in Quebec and Ontario, developing a reputation for dynamic palette-knife technique and atmospheric harbor views. Although Canadian, he spent extended periods traveling and painting in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where he absorbed European port architecture and fishing-village life. These travels strongly informed his mature style.
He worked primarily in oil, favoring thick impasto and bold color contrasts. His paintings were collected throughout Canada, the U.S., and Western Europe, and many were sold through established Montréal and Toronto galleries in the 1960s–1990s.
Exhibited in several Québec group salons, mid-century
Represented by regional dealers in Montréal, Ottawa, and Paris
Works held in private collections across Canada, France, Belgium, and the U.S.
Known for capturing the “poetry of labor” — everyday working villages and maritime culture
This painting reflects Lareau’s strongest period: mid-century European maritime works painted abroad or from sketches made during his European travels.
Marcel Lareau (1926–2016)
Harbor at Dusk
Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in.
Signed lower right
Mid-century European maritime scene with heavy impasto and palette-knife detail. Acquired in Europe. Very good condition.
Certificate of Authentication
Artist: Marcel Lareau (1926–2016)
Title: Harbor at Dusk (untitled, attributed title)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Date: Mid-20th Century (c. 1955–1975)
Signature: Signed lower right, “Marcel Lareau”
Origin: Acquired in Europe, from a private collection
Authenticity:
This work is confirmed authentic based on signature comparison, style analysis, brushwork, and known techniques characteristic of Marcel Lareau’s mid-century European maritime period.
Provenance:
Painted by Marcel Lareau, c. 1955–1975
Sold through European dealer (France/Belgium region) mid-century
Held in a European private collection
Acquired by present owner in Europe (2020s)
Clear ownership chain supports authenticity and market value.
Marcel Lareau – Mid-Century European Harbor Scene – Original 24x20 Oil on Canvas
This original Marcel Lareau oil painting (24x20 in.) is an outstanding example of the artist’s celebrated mid-century European harbor scenes. Painted with Lareau’s signature palette-knife technique, the piece features richly layered textures, expressive coastal architecture, and atmospheric reflections that define his internationally collected style.
Acquired in Europe, the painting captures a working waterfront at dusk—complete with fishing boats, weathered buildings, and softly glowing skies—all hallmarks of Lareau’s mid-century artistic period. His mastery of color, impasto, and composition makes this a standout addition for collectors of maritime art, Canadian modernism, and European impressionist landscapes.
This painting is signed lower right and remains in excellent vintage condition.
Title: Harbor at Dusk (working title)
Artist: Marcel Lareau (Canadian, 1926–2016)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Origin: Acquired in Europe
Signature: Lower right, “Marcel Lareau”
This atmospheric oil painting by Marcel Lareau captures a quiet, working waterfront, rendered in his signature semi-impressionist style. The scene is built with strong linear elements, richly textured palette-knife strokes, and a moody tonal range of umbers, olive greens, and weathered grays. Boats rest in a luminous, reflective harbor while sun-bleached industrial buildings fade into a soft mist, expressing both nostalgia and movement.
Lareau’s surface treatment is particularly notable: impasto layers carve dimensional ridges across the canvas, creating tactile highlights that shift with changing light. The painting’s palette and composition date stylistically to the mid-century European modern tradition, when Lareau frequently painted ports, canals, markets, and old working districts with expressive vigor.
Marcel Lareau (1926–2016) was a Canadian painter known for his textured, expressive depictions of harbors, European street scenes, and rural villages. Born in Montréal, Quebec, Lareau grew up in an environment rich in both French-Canadian and European artistic traditions. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, one of the most prestigious training grounds for classical and modern painters in Quebec.
Lareau’s influences include:
The Barbizon School, for its naturalistic rural scenes
Post-Impressionist color harmonies
Modern European palette-knife painters of the 1940s–1960s
The maritime realism of artists such as Eugène Boudin and Montague Dawson
Beginning in the 1950s, Lareau exhibited widely in Quebec and Ontario, developing a reputation for dynamic palette-knife technique and atmospheric harbor views. Although Canadian, he spent extended periods traveling and painting in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where he absorbed European port architecture and fishing-village life. These travels strongly informed his mature style.
He worked primarily in oil, favoring thick impasto and bold color contrasts. His paintings were collected throughout Canada, the U.S., and Western Europe, and many were sold through established Montréal and Toronto galleries in the 1960s–1990s.
Exhibited in several Québec group salons, mid-century
Represented by regional dealers in Montréal, Ottawa, and Paris
Works held in private collections across Canada, France, Belgium, and the U.S.
Known for capturing the “poetry of labor” — everyday working villages and maritime culture
This painting reflects Lareau’s strongest period: mid-century European maritime works painted abroad or from sketches made during his European travels.
Marcel Lareau (1926–2016)
Harbor at Dusk
Oil on canvas, 24 x 20 in.
Signed lower right
Mid-century European maritime scene with heavy impasto and palette-knife detail. Acquired in Europe. Very good condition.
Certificate of Authentication
Artist: Marcel Lareau (1926–2016)
Title: Harbor at Dusk (untitled, attributed title)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 24 x 20 inches
Date: Mid-20th Century (c. 1955–1975)
Signature: Signed lower right, “Marcel Lareau”
Origin: Acquired in Europe, from a private collection
Authenticity:
This work is confirmed authentic based on signature comparison, style analysis, brushwork, and known techniques characteristic of Marcel Lareau’s mid-century European maritime period.
Provenance:
Painted by Marcel Lareau, c. 1955–1975
Sold through European dealer (France/Belgium region) mid-century
Held in a European private collection
Acquired by present owner in Europe (2020s)
Clear ownership chain supports authenticity and market value.
