Lake Saint-Charles, c.1860

Painting by Zacharie Vincent of a scene on a riverbank at sunset. There are groups of people on the shore and in rowboats on the water. In the distance, a steamboat passes forested hills. There is a house in the trees and a long dock in front of it.

Zacharie Vincent, Lake Saint-Charles, c.1860, oil on canvas, 45 x 76.2 cm, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

This painting reflects the changes that were taking place on the outskirts of Vincent’s village of Jeune-Lorette from the mid-nineteenth century onward, as city people from Quebec began to establish country homes and hunting camps in the area. The figures grouped in the boats, the steamboat, the house and boathouses, the jetties, and the tree trunks lying on the riverbank—all of these elements demonstrate the rapid progress of settlement and the arrival of tourists.

Gallery

Lake Saint-Charles - Art Canada