O-690.1

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Levius Peters Sherwood

Portrait of Speaker Levius Peters Sherwood

Levius Peters Sherwood was born in 1777 in what is now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec. He became a lawyer and judge, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1812. He was appointed Speaker in 1821and soon the duties of the role forced him to take leaves from his judicial work. In 1825 he was appointed judge of the King’s Bench and was involved with historical cases, including treason trials after the 1837-1838 rebellions over a lack of political reforms. He died in Toronto in 1850, and his portrait was painted posthumously 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.