This painting by the Montreal abstract artist Paul-Émile Borduas (1905–1960) is a good example of an early Automatiste work: a movement that favoured a fluid technique and the stream of consciousness. Borduas did not say to himself, “I am going to paint a female torso”; he recognized the subject in an instant when the work was completed. This is one of forty-five gouaches shown at the Ermitage, an exhibition hall owned by the Collège de Montréal, at 3510 Côte-des-Neiges. No other exhibition space could be found for this work, then judged to be “surrealist” and very “abstract.” For a long time Study for Torso or No. 14 was titled simply “Abstraction.”