Laurentian Scenes by Michael Litvack

"A wartime grocery store, 1942, in New Glasgow/St. Sophie. The store features all authentic signage of the times."

Michael Litvack, artist

"The Roxy Theater in St. Agathe, in 1956. Eggs for the town were supplied by the farmers of St. Sophie and New Glasgow."

Michael Litvack, artist

"The Roxy Theatre in St. Agathe, where kids could pretend to be Jeff Chandler, or Scaramouche. Where the ticket taker was the ice cream seller, and probably the projectionist too! Where it was great to be a kid in the 1950s."

Michael Litvack, artist

"This farm in New Glasgow, began about 1905… and became a Hotel for the Montreal summer crowd. Ida Kottenberg was the grandmother of Willie Rudy, who became mayor of Saint Sophie."

Michael Litvack, artist

"The Opera Bottling Plant was a small local distributor of soft drinks. This painting shows a local grocery store in St. Agathe in the late 1940s, with the soft drink signage."

Michael Litvack, artist

"St. Sophie was the egg producing capital of Quebec...here is one of the Gontovnick chicken houses."

Michael Litvack, artist

"Willie Rudy was an exceptional man. Born in New Glasgow, Quebec, he was a simple farmer. He learned to speak six languages in dealing with his multi-ethnic neighbours. After serving many years on council, he served two terms as Mayor. What made his unique was the fact that he was the only Jewish mayor in a rural town in Quebec. The time frame for this painting is mid 1950s."

Michael Litvack, artist

The old Fort Rose School in New Glasgow, Quebec, was "a one room building with grades 1 to 7 all being taught at the same time. The teacher was Miss Smith, who taught many children in the area, from mere toddlers to teenagers. She lived directly across the road from the school, making life easier for her. (The small store is my idea, as the original house had the extra room added sometime in the 1960s.)"

"Here is the General Store in Val-David, exact date unknown, but depicted as of the end of the 1940s... The Shawbridge bakery truck was everywhere, supplying the countryside with fresh baked European-style bakery products. The truck would go, door to door, community to community..."

Michael Litvack, artist