Meeting of the Sovereign Council

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 1

Charles Huot, the painter of the picture here reproduced, was born in Quebec in 1855, worked in Europe from 1874 until 1886, when he returned to Canada. He lived for several years at Sillery, where he died in 1930.

He is probably best known by his large mural decorations in the Legislative Building in Quebec. These consist of two large wall paintings, one in the Assembly Chamber, depicting the meeting of the First Legislature of Lower Canada in 1792, and the other in the Council Chamber, portraying the first sitting of the Sovereign Council of New France, while another painting of allegorical character decorates the ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. These are the most important works of their kind in the country, and represent the most ambitious project for the decoration of a public building which Canada has undertaken.

The painting of the Meeting of the Sovereign Council occupies a panel twelve feet high and thirty feet long, above the Speaker's Chair. It was the last work of the painter, who died before it was finished. Messrs. Charles Maillard and Ivan Neilson, of the Quebec School of Fine Arts, completed the picture. The details of architecture, costume and furnishings have been studied with care, and the picture is an accurate historical record as well as an admirable decoration.