Painter, illustrator, printmaker Clarence Alphonse Gagnon was born in Montreal, Canada, November 8, 1881, and died there January 5, 1942. He studied at the Art Association of Montreal with William Brymner from 1897-1900, and, from 1903-1905, in Paris at the Academie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens. This European venture was financed by James Morgan, a Montreal art collector and businessman. Back in Canada in 1909, he lived near Montreal in Baie-Saint-Paul.

He became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1910 and a full member in 1922. From 1911 to 1914 he was variously in Canada, France and Norway, working from sketches begun in Quebec. His subjects included French-Canadian life and anecdotal scenes such as "Horse Racing in Winter, Quebec", c. 1927. Gagnon lived in Paris from 1924 to 1936, where he illustrated Louis Hemon's story of Canadian frontier life, Marie Chapdelaine, and L. F. Pouquette's "Le Grand Silence Blanc" with colored wood block prints. To protect against forgeries, he placed his thumbprint on the back of his canvases. He ground his own paints, making paintings simple in design, with brilliant color.