Fire at the Paper Mill in Lorette, c.1862

Painting by Zacharie Vincent of a scene of several buildings on fire in a small village. Embers speckle the air as smoke rises into the sky. A crowd observes the scene.

Zacharie Vincent, Fire at the Paper Mill in Lorette, c.1862, oil on cardboard, 44.4 x 59.4 cm, Musée de la civilisation, Quebec City.

Here Vincent depicts the fire that broke out on June 10, 1862, at the Smith paper mill on the Kabir Kouba River and spread to the church of Notre-Dame de la Jeune-Lorette. Thanks to the quick action of Abbé Prosper Vincent (the artist’s nephew, who was on holiday in the village) and several other citizens, most of the church furnishings and sacred objects were saved. Vincent uses no exaggeration to create drama or emotion; rather than documenting an event, his painting represents conditions of precariousness and irremediable loss.

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Fire at the Paper Mill in Lorette - Art Canada