O-462

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Louis-René Beaudoin

Portrait of Speaker Louis-René Beaudoin

Louis-René Beaudoin’s extraordinary term as Speaker began in 1953, amid praise from all sides of the House for his strong qualifications. Disaster struck in 1956 when Beaudoin lost control of a debate over a government loan to an American company that was building a pipeline in Canada. Chaos reigned, and some opposition members stormed the Speaker’s chair. For the first time in Canadian history a motion of censure was moved against the Speaker. He survived, but resigned the role in 1957 after he inexplicably wrote a letter to a newspaper to criticize opposition members. He died in 1970. Kenneth Keith Forbes painted his portrait in 1960.

Kenneth Forbes

Kenneth Forbes was born in Toronto in 1892, and first studied art with his father, the portraitist John Colin Forbes. He also studied in England and Scotland, until he joined a British machine-gun corps to fight in the First World War. He was gassed and wounded, and twice mentioned in dispatches for gallantry. In 1917 he became a Canadian war artist, and his gripping painting Canadian Artillery in Action is on permanent display at the Canadian War Museum. Forbes was an outspoken foe of modern art and helped to establish the traditionally minded Ontario Institute of Painters.