O-453.1

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Lewis Wallbridge

Portrait of Speaker Lewis Wallbridge

Lewis Wallbridge was the last Speaker of the Assembly of the Province of Canada. He was born in Belleville, Ontario in 1816. He was elected as a moderate Reformer in 1857 and championed causes such as representation by population, public education and free enterprise. He was a polarizing choice as Speaker, though lauded by some as a sensible option, a summary born out as he oversaw the contentious debates that led to Confederation. He left politics and was appointed chief justice of Manitoba by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. He died 1887 in Winnipeg. His portrait was painted by William Sawyer in 1873.

William Sawyer

William Sawyer was born in Montreal in 1820, and as a young man he considered law but chose to be an artist. By the 1840s had was established doing portraits of Montreal’s eminent citizens, though he also took his paint and brushes on the road as far as Toronto and picked up portrait commissions along the way. He settled in Kingston in 1855 but maintained a painting and photographic studio in Montreal. In 1863 he was renowned enough to be selected to make a portrait of John A. Macdonald, Several of his paintings are in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.