Ships and Boats of Champlain's Time

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 1

No authentic portrait of Champlain exists. Nor have we any description of his physical appearance. The portrait which is so often seen is a copy of the likeness made by Moncornet, a seventeenth century engraver, of an entirely different personage of his time. The copy, with a few changes, was made two hundred years later by a French artist, Ducornet, and fraudulently titled as a portrait of Champlain. It is a most inadequate representation, and gives no suggestion of Champlain's active, enterprising and resolute character.

Paul Chevre's statue expresses much of the spirit of the explorer and the founder of New France, and is an excellent piece of sculpture, well suited to its commanding situation on the terrace at Quebec.