O-431

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Josephe-Édouard Turcotte

Portrait of Speaker Joseph-Édouard Turcotte

Joseph-Édouard Turcotte was born in 1808 in Gentilly, now a part of Bécancour, Quebec. He became a lawyer and entered politics as a Patriote. He was elected to the Assembly in 1841 but defeated in 1844 after supporting Reform causes. He was re-elected in 1851, and eloquently spoke for school funding, the end of seigneurial tenure and other causes. He was mayor and a key developer of the town of Trois-Revières. Despite his detractors, he had a long and significant career in politics. He died in 1864, a year before his portrait was completed by Théophile Hamel.

Théophile Hamel

Théophile Hamel was born in 1817 in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, and studied art in Quebec and in many of the great cultural centres of Europe. He was an astute business man and a tremendously successful artist, and the National Gallery of Canada calls him “one of early Canada’s greatest portrait painters.” In 1853 the government of the United Canadas appointed him official portrait painter, and tasked him with creating portraits of all Speakers since 1791, many of which were copied from portraits held by families or elsewhere. His subjects also included the generals Montcalm and Wolfe, and many other eminent figures of early Canada.