11/04/2024
The English Pug and the French Poodle (French: Le Caniche français et le Carlin anglais), is an art installation with two bronze sculptures by the Canadian artist Marc André Fortier inspired by the Commedia dell'arte.
Standing in the heart of Old Montreal, the diptych evokes, with humour, the cultural discords that prevail between the French and English Canadians.
On one corner of the tower, an elegant pretentious Englishman holding a pug, stares with condescension at the Notre-Dame Basilica, symbol of the French Catholic Church religious dominance in Quebec. On the opposite corner of the same tower, an elegant French lady, wearing a Chanel-style suit, rubber-zippered high-heeled shoe, firmly holds against her chest a French Poodle and stares with discontent at the head office of the Bank of Montreal, symbol of the English power. Both dogs are attracted to each other but are made by their owners to stay far apart.