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Secondary sourcePainting1909

Samuel de Champlain arrives at Quebec

George Agnew Reid · 1909

A 1909 painting by George Agnew Reid imagining Champlain's arrival at Quebec, with a large sailing ship beside Indigenous canoes. It shows Champlain as a historical figure, not as a record made in his time.

Shows Champlain as a subject of a later painting that imagines his arrival at Quebec.

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Painting of a large European sailing ship with multiple sails and rows of crew on its deck, beside canoes filled with paddling Indigenous men in feathered headdresses on dark water. A paddler in the foreground raises a paddle.
George Agnew Reid, Samuel de Champlain arrives at Quebec, 1909. Library and Archives Canada.

About this source

What it is

This is a 1909 painting by George Agnew Reid, titled Samuel de Champlain arrives at Quebec. It shows a large European sailing ship with many sails and rows of crew on its deck, beside canoes filled with paddling Indigenous men in feathered headdresses on dark water. A paddler in the foreground raises a paddle. The painting is held by Library and Archives Canada, which does not allow free reuse of its copyrighted works.

Why it matters

The painting was made more than three centuries after Champlain arrived at Quebec, so it shows how Canadians in 1909 imagined that moment. Reid's scene places the newcomers' ship and the Indigenous canoes side by side, which tells students how the arrival was remembered in the early 1900s. It is a later interpretation, not a witness account.

Look closer

  • Which figures does the painter place in the foreground, and why?
  • How does the painting show the difference between the ship and the canoes?
  • What might a painting from 1909 leave out about the people who lived there before Champlain?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Samuel de Champlain on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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