The duty goes beyond the framework of the National Assembly in this series which revisits the highlights of our political history. Today, The Sovereign Council by Charles Huot.
Quebec, September 19, 1664. The members of the Sovereign Council of New France are discussing current affairs when Governor Augustin de Saffray de Mézy leaps from his seat. The representative of Louis XIV in Canada grabs Attorney General Jean Bourdon by the throat to drag him outside the room, where he strikes him with his cane and then with the flat of his sword!
The governor’s outburst clashes with the calm of the inaugural session of the Sovereign Council of 1663, a representation of which has been hung in the Salon Rouge of the National Assembly since 1930. Charles Huot’s work shows us a Mézy (1) pensive holding in one hand the blade of his sword symbolizing his military prerogatives. It was with this weapon that the governor knocked out poor Bourdon (2) the following year, wanting to put the Council to his heels.
The artist placed the future bishop of Quebec Mgr de Laval (3) to the right of the boiling Mézy. It was by mutual agreement that the two men appointed the five other members of the assembly, drawing from the pool of notables in Canada, which then numbered less than 3,000 settlers.
For historian Marie-Ève Ouellet, the painter made the right choice by immortalizing the beginnings of the institution set up in the wake of the colony’s attachment to the royal domain by Louis XIV. “In 1663, the Sovereign Council had prerogatives in matters of finance and the police. It is one of the first examples of an assembly making decisions in areas which today are the responsibility of parliaments in a democratic society”, she pointed out to the To have to.
This golden age was short-lived, as the spheres of activity of the Conseil Souverain narrowed with the arrival on the scene of Intendant Jean Talon, whose powers partly overlapped with his own. The institution is gradually relegated to its functions as a court of appeal for the courts of the colony. It nevertheless retained its aura until the British Conquest, which put an end to its activities in 1760. “The conception of sovereignty was intimately linked to the notion of justice at the time”, underlines Mme Ouellet.
rose guard
The meeting of the Sovereign Council reconstituted by Charles Huot took place at the Château Saint-Louis in Quebec, as indicated by the view of the Saint-Lawrence River, which can be seen at the end of the Governor’s terrace (4). The artist preferred this grandiose setting to the house of bailiff Jean Levasseur on rue Sainte-Anne where the meeting of September 18, 1663 was actually held. painted clock at the entrance to the room.
Councilors dropped off coats and hats here and there. They are ahead of the fashion of their time since Huot decked them out in three-cornered hats (5), these three-pointed hats which would not appear until the end of the 17th century.e century. The painter did what he could with information provided by historian Thomas Chapais. He also complained about it to the journalist Damase Potvin who came to visit him in his studio in 1929: “Think about it, not the slightest document either on the figures or on the costumes of the time. And yet I must tell the truth! »
Let’s not forget that in the 1920s, there was no research or publication on the uniforms of the troops and guards of governors general in New France. Huot managed as best he could.
The two flags (6) hung on the wall also pose a problem, the royal standard of France in use in Canada being entirely white since Samuel de Champlain. Huot was visibly influenced by his contemporary Charles William Jefferys, whose illustrations popularized banners strewn with fleur-de-lis.
Rather discreet, the two halberdiers (7) posted to the left of the painting stand out for their pink uniform which does not correspond to that of the soldiers detached to Canada in 1663. They could be members of Mézy’s personal guard, advance the historian René Chartrand, consulted by The duty. “In principle, these guards wore clothing in the colors of the livery of the governor,” he said. Needless to say that a pale pink livery seems very unlikely to me, because it would cause some hilarity! »
Huot would have done better to reread the novels of Alexandre Dumas to find a suitable outfit for his halberdiers. “The governor’s guards, if we assume that they are indeed them, should be dressed as the king’s musketeers, with the cassock and the wide-brimmed hat”, specifies Chartrand. The sword and carbine would also have been more appropriate than the ceremonial halberd.
If he lends himself willingly to the game of criticism, René Chartrand appeals for clemency towards the painter. “Let’s not forget that, in the 1920s, there was no research or publication on the uniforms of the troops and guards of governors general in New France. Huot managed as best he could,” says the specialist in Ancien Régime uniforms.
Static Banquet
Huot received the equivalent of $133,000 in today’s dollars for his Consovereign seil. He hardly benefited from it since he died on January 27, 1930 before having completed the work begun four years earlier. His death surprised Damase Potvin, who had visited him in December 1929. the ideal,” he wrote in The sun speaking of the septuagenarian artist.
The ends of the canvas including the halberdiers were completed by students in the summer of 1930. The painting was then hung in place of the Champlain by Henri Beau who had adorned the Salon Rouge since 1903.
For the historian of the Quebec parliament Gaston Deschênes, the posthumous work of Huot lacks spice. “The characters are sitting there as if they were at the head table of a banquet…It’s a bit drab. The aging artist failed to recreate the energy of his painting The language debatewhich has been hanging since 1913 on the wall of the Blue Room, across the hall.
Despite its fixed aesthetics, The Sovereign Council by Charles Huot has the merit of maintaining an unknown institution in the heart of the public space, believes Marie-Ève Ouellet. “I think it’s still well done, the canvas, because you really understand the dynamics of an emerging society. We are in an unequal world, but the notion of council, of meeting to make important decisions, is very present. »