O-449

•

painting (portrait)

•

The Honourable Sir Allan Napier MacNab

Portrait of Speaker Sir Allan Napier MacNab

Sir Allan Napier MacNab was born in 1798 in what is now Niagra-On-The-Lake. He opposed reform, and was in the militia that attacked rebels in Montgomery’s Tavern during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. He was knighted for his role against the rebellion. He represented Hamilton for 32 years, and was Speaker in both the Assembly of Upper Canada and the Assembly of the Province of Canada, and joint premier of the province in 1854-56. He died in 1862 at Dundurn Castle, his vast home in Hamilton that is still open to the public. Théophile Hamel painted his portrait in 1853.

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.