O-440

•

painting (portrait)

•

The Honourable Albert Sévigny

Portrait of Speaker Albert Sévigny

Albert Sévigny served as Speaker in the temporary Commons at the Victoria Memorial Building (now the Canadian Museum of Nature) after fire destroyed the Centre Block in 1916.

The Quebec City lawyer, born in 1881, was elected in 1911. He supported the Conservative government on Canadian involvement in the First World War and during the Conscription debates, both unpopular positions with French voters. It cost him his seat in Parliament in the 1917 election, and he then served as a judge of the Quebec Superior Court for approximately 40 years. Charles Huot painted his portrait in 1918, and Sévigny died in 1961.

Charles Huot

Charles Huot was born in Quebec City in 1855, and showed such early talent that an abbé raised funds to send him to Paris to study at École-des-beaux-arts. He returned to Quebec 12 years later, and from 1885 on shuttled between the city and Europe. In Quebec he did portraits and opened an art school, and received the first of many commissions to decorate churches. His portrait of the language debate that had taken place in the Assembly of Lower Canada still hangs in Quebec’s Parliament. He was working on another commission for the House when he died in 1930.