O-455

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet

Portrait of Speaker Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet

Over his 23 years as a member of Parliament for Laval, Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet was, extraordinarily, acclaimed to office five times. Born in 1848, he was a lawyer who championed the rights of French Canadians. He led a regiment to fight against the Second Riel Rebellion, but argued against the execution of Louis Riel. He was elected Speaker in 1887, and later served as minister of Public Works. He left politics in 1896, and died in 1916. The Ouimet Family recently donated his Speaker’s chair to the House of Commons collection. His portrait was painted by René Émile Quentin in classic fashion in 1889.

René Émile Quentin

René Émile Quentin was born in Paris in 1860, and was something of an itinerant artist, having moved first to Algeria, then back to Paris, then to Canada in Montreal and later British Columbia, and then to the United States, where he died in Rhode Island in 1914. He was known for his portraits, landscapes and historical paintings. His New York Times’ obituary reported that “while Government painter for the Dominion of Canada he executed the portrait of Queen Victoria which hangs in the Capitol at Ottawa,” and, sadly, that he “died in a sanitarium here to-day.”