Collection search - Gaspé, Québec [graphic material]

Record information – Brief
1
Gaspé, Québec [graphic material]

Hierarchical level:

Item

Date:

[ca. 1871].

Reference:

R9266-13-X-E, Volume number: 4169

Type of material:

Art

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

3834701

Context of this record:

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Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana at the National Archives of Canada

Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, 2008 Acquisition

Gaspé, Québec
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Record information – Details

Date(s):

[ca. 1871].

Place of creation:

Québec (Province)

Extent:

1 painting : oil on canvas ; 70.0 x 45.0 cm (approx.).

Language of material:

English

Accession:

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Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana [graphic material, textual material, cartographic material]

Scope and content:

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Painting shows both sailing ships and a steamship in the harbour of Gaspé, Québec, with the buildings of the Robin and Le Boutilier trading companies in the background:

'A typical Robin establishment would have consisted of a general store, a house where the manager lived, a warehouse for dry fish, and a stage (or landing platform) where the fish were brought ashore. There would also have been a large area on or near the beach where flakes for drying the fish had been erected. These were waist-high frames on which the split cod would be spread out to dry. Paspébiac was the headquarters. The Robin and Le Boutillier installations on the barachois resembled a small town. Each company had a warehouse four or five storeys high, a general store, a wharf, a carpenter shop, a sail loft, a blacksmith shop and forge, a cooper shop for making barrels, offices, a cook-house, a boarding house for the apprentices, and numerous other buildings besides the large area given over to the flakes and the drying fish. Set on the hill away from the fishery there were the Robin farm buildings and a large house, known as The Park, where the General Manager lived.' (quoted in B. Le Maistre, 'From Jersey to the Gaspé: Charles Robin, 1743-1824, a Forgotten Father of Canada', Gaspesian Heritage WebMagazine)

The painting is attributed to the English artist Philip John Ouless (1817-1885). An almost identical painting by Ouless was for sale at a Christie's (London) sale on September 22, 2010, lot 19.

Additional name(s):

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Ouless, Philip John (1817-1885)

Additional information:

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General note:

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Jerseymen, along with Basques, Bretons, Irishmen and Cornishmen, have played a role in the cod fisheries of Newfoundland since the 17th century. Following the ceding of the Gaspé Peninsula to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the St Aubin merchant Charles Robin, seeing the Newfoundland fisheries overcrowded, set up a fishery on the Gulf of St Lawrence at Paspébiac, Quebec. Robin established his fishery there in 1786, which grew out of the earlier Robin, Pipon and Company, a Jersey cod-fishing enterprise based at Isle Madame. With stations all along the Canadian seabord, Robin developed the triangular trade, with its ownership in Jersey, which saw his ships laden with salted cod leaving Paspébiac bound for ports on the eastern seabord, the Caribbean and South America, Portugal, Spain and Italy, the Baltic and London. They took on cargoes of rum, molasses and sugar in the Americas for Europe, and returned to Paspébiac with manufactured goods. Robin's firm dominated the trade in Gulf of St Lawrence, brought great wealth to Jersey, and precipitated settlement on the Canadian seabord, until the trade slowed in the last quarter of the 19th century. Ouless's paintings provide rare illustrations which document the Jersey fishery.

Christie's Sale catalogue entry for four John Ouless paintings, lots 18-21, sale of September 22, 2010. Also included were paintings of the establishment at Paspébiac, Québec and the Great Harbour, La Poêle, Newfoundland. All of these paintings are important early views of Canada around the time of Confederation.

Alpha-numeric note:

Sotheby's inventory number : O7

Custodial history:

Acquired by Peter Winkworth from an unknown source, although possibly from a descendant of a family engaged in the trans-Atlantic fisheries trade from the Isle of Jersey.

Source:

Private

Related control no.:

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2008-00292-6
R9266
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Conditions of access:

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Graphic (art)

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [R9266]

[Consultation 90 Open]

4169 Item no. assigned by LAC 4102

[Consultation 90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Credit : Library and Archives Canada, Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, Acc. No. R9266-4102
Copyright : Expired

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