St. Pierre and Miquelon, 1970, 50 fr. 13. multicoloured

Catalogues:
Michel: 462
Scott: C48
Stanley Gibbons: 489
Yvert et Tellier: 51 aeriens

This portrait of Jacques Cartier was painted by Théophile Hamel in about 1844. Since Cartier died in 1557 it is obvious that he did not pose for this. So how did Hamel know what Cartier looked like? As far as we know, no portraits of Cartier were ever made while he was alive. Hamel based his portrait of the famous «discoverer of Canada» on a previous painting made by François Riss. Riss, in turn, was inspired by a sketch of a man from the same era (but not Cartier) that he found at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. So who is this man? He is someone that potentially looked like Cartier. Hamel's portrait is copied from a painting, since destroyed by fire, done in 1839 by François Riss for the town of St. Malo in France, Cartier's birthplace. Hamel (1817-1870) greatly influenced the following generation of Québec painters.

Plots: Cartier Jacques