Newspapers and magazines

These works illustrate three aspects of the relationship between the art and literature found in the newspapers and magazines of this prosperous period for Québec's popular press: John Neilson is one of the most important printers of newspapers; Napoléon Aubin introduced a libertarian and poetic vision of events; Mary Graddon Gosselin personified the presence of women.

This satirical and well-made newspaper filled with numerous illustrations spared no authority figure. Because of their rebellious turn of mind, Napoléon Aubin and his printer were incarcerated during the Rebellions. A famous journalist, Aubin was also a drawer, a composer, a playwright, a scientist and the author of fairy tales and poems. He founded seven newspapers and magazines while collaborating on many others. He published a juicy utopia in the Fantasque, "My trip to the moon [free translation of French]", in 1839. In 1840, he acquired the first lithographic press in Québec City. He used it for his engravings and for his 1841 portrait from one of Théophile Hamel's first paintings. The periodical's title and the libertarian maxim are below the harlequin cartouche: "I obey or command no one, I go where I want, do what I want, am what I can and die when I must [free translation of French]".

Napoléon Aubin (1812-1890), Le Fantasque, Québec, 1 August 1837 to February 1849, 21 x 15 x 2,2 cm, Montréal, Bibliothèque nationale du Québec. Photo Robert Derome.

 

On 11 January 1832 the citizens of Québec City presented John Neilson, publisher of the Quebec Gazette, with this sumptuous cup made in London by Joseph Cradock.

"JOHN NEILSON, Esq., M.P.P. Twice sent to the IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT to Defend the rights of CANADIANS. His fellow CITIZENS offer this modest tribute in recognition of his SERVICES to his COUNTRY and to pay homage to his CIVIC virtues, Québec, 1831. [free translation of French]"

The scenes, among which the handing over of a document, were inspired as much by local context as by Greco-Roman antiquity.

Joseph Cradock (London, England, active as soon as 1806), Cup presented to John Neilson (1776-1848) on 11 January 1832, 1831, silver, 38,3 cm x 35,5 cm, Québec, Musée du Québec, 84.21. Photo Robert Derome.

The Montreal Museum or Journal of Literature and Arts (1832-1834) was a periodical directed by Mary Graddon Gosselin, the first woman to publish a newspaper in North America. Many women from Upper and Lower Canada wrote articles and became regular contributors at her instigation. This is the first number of this initially bilingual, then only English language, publication devoted to promoting Canadian literature. The engraving on the front page is Montréal's first lithographic print. Its iconography used as its theme the Allegory of the Arts protected by a shield touched by lightning: winged literature, the quill and open book with the periodical's title; architecture, the capital decorated with acanthus leaves; painting, the painter's palette and stick; drawing, the ruler and compass; and music, the lyre.

Robert Sproule and Adolphus Bourne, Allegory of the Arts (Literature, Architecture, Painting, Drawing and Music), 1832, lithograph published in the Montreal Museum or Journal of Literature and Arts, Printed for the Proprietor by Ludger Duvernay, Montreal December 1832, vol. 1, no 1 to February-March 1834, monthly, 22 cm, Montreal, McGill University, Rare Books and Special Collection Department, Lawrende Lande Canadiana Collection. Photo Robert Derome.