O-689

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Marshall Spring Bidwell

Portrait of Speaker Marshall Spring Bidwell

Marshall Spring Bidwell was born in Massachusetts in 1799, the son of a Congressman who would flee to Upper Canada amid accusations of embezzlement. Despite resistance from his father’s detractors, Bidwell was elected to the Assembly. As Speaker he supported bills to liberalize marriage laws, abolish imprisonment for debt, and demand responsible government and greater control of public revenues. He fled back to the United States in 1837 after he was falsely accused of having taken part in the Upper Canadian Rebellion. Théophile Hamel painted his portrait posthumously, with Bidwell dressed in the traditional garb of Speaker.

Théophile Hamel

Théophile Hamel was born in 1817 in Sainte-Foy, Quebec, and studied art in Quebec and in many of the great cultural centres of Europe. He was an astute business man and a tremendously successful artist, and the National Gallery of Canada calls him “one of early Canada’s greatest portrait painters.” In 1853 the government of the United Canadas appointed him official portrait painter, and tasked him with creating portraits of all Speakers since 1791, many of which were copied from portraits held by families or elsewhere. His subjects also included the generals Montcalm and Wolfe, and many other eminent figures of early Canada.