To my dear wife Pnina, who painted a bestiary of her own; to my colleagues, Nancy Senior and Réal Ouellet; to Sarah Brohman and Rosemary Shipton; to Sara Angel and Kendra Ward; to Christine Poulin.
From the Art Canada Institute
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Salvatore Guerrera and Family, the Title Sponsors of this book.
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the other sponsors for the 2016–17 Season: Aimia, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Esker Foundation, The McLean Foundation, Rosamond Ivey, The Richard and Beryl Ivey Fund within the London Community Foundation, Karen Schreiber and Marnie Schreiber, and TD Bank.
Much gratitude goes to the Founding Sponsor for the Canadian Online Art Book Project: BMO Financial Group; and to the Art Canada Institute Founding Patrons:
Jalynn H. Bennett, the Butterfield Family Foundation, David and Vivian Campbell, Albert E. Cummings, Kiki and Ian Delaney, Jon and Lyne Dellandrea, the Fleck Family, Roger and Kevin Garland, the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation, The Scott Griffin Foundation, Michelle Koerner and Kevin Doyle, Jane Huh, Phil Lind, Sarah and Tom Milroy, Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau, Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan, Sandra L. Simpson, Pam and Mike Stein, Nalini and Tim Stewart, Robin and David Young, Sara and Michael Angel; as well as its Founding Partner Patrons: the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and Partners in Art.
The ACI gratefully acknowledges the support and assistance of the Gilcrease Museum (Diana Cox), Canadian Museum of History (Dominique Dufour, Vincent Lafond), Library and Archives Canada, The McCord Museum, Musée de la Civilisation (Ariane Fréchette), Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges (Sébastien Daviau), Le Monastère des Augustines (Ariane Blanchet-Robitaille), Musée des Ursulines de Québec (Véronique Dumont), National Library of Medicine, Priests of Saint-Sulpice of Montreal (Pascale Bergeron), Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Shrine (François-Marie Héraud), Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (Julie Timte). Special thanks also go to the anonymous peer reviewer and to Carmen Robertson for their reading.
Image Sources
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material. The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Cover of the Codex Canadensis, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Key Works: Louis Nicolas, Jacques Cartier’s Ship, Codex Canadensis, page 67, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Significance and Critical Issues: Louis Nicolas, Amphibians, Codex Canadensis, page 37, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Style & Technique: Louis Nicolas, Escutcheon of France . . . (Eccusson de France . . .), Codex Canadensis, page 3, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Sources & Resources: Louis Nicolas, Branch of the White Cedar of Canada (Branche du cedre blanc du canada), Codex Canadensis, page 26, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Where to See: Louis Nicolas, Unicorn of the Red Sea (Licorne de La mer rouge), Codex Canadensis, page 27, n.d., Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Credit for Works by Louis Nicolas
Louis Nicolas, Codex Canadensis, n.d., Collection of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
The Assumption (L’Assomption), 1671, by Claude François (Frère Luc). Collection of the Monastère des Augustines, chapelle de l’Hôpital Général, Quebec City.
Birds found in The History of Animals (Historiae Animalium), volume 3 (1555), by Conrad Gessner. Reproduced in the book Curious Woodcuts of Fanciful and Real Beasts (1971), edited by Edmund V. Gillon Jr. Courtesy of Dover Publications.
Drawing of a passiflora by Eugenio Petrelli, which served as a frontispiece in a book published in 1610 by the Jesuit Antonio Possevino. Public domain.
The Crown (La Couronne). Hydrography Containing the Theory and Practice of All Parts of Navigation (Hydrographie contenant la théorie et la pratique de toutes les parties de la navigation), 1643, by Georges Fournier. Photographed in Histoire de la Marine française illustrée, Larousse, 1934. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
Depiction of the metamorphosis of a frog in Bernard Germain, Comte de Lacépède, disciple of Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon, General and Special History of Oviparous Quadrupeds and Snakes (Histoire générale et particulière des quadrupèdes ovipares et des serpents) (1788–89), plate 31. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
A depiction of the otter in Pierre Belon du Mans’s The Natural History of Fishes (La Nature et diversité des poissons) (1555), 27. Public domain.
An engraving found in François Du Creux, The History of Canada, or of New France (Historiae Canadensis seu Novae Franciae Libri Decem) (1664), 76. Public domain. All images from this publication courtesy of Toronto Fischer Rare Book Library. Call number (2): Regis 00576 / D-10 00092.
Ex-voto of the Three Shipwrecked at Lévis (Ex-voto des trois naufragés à Lévis), 1754, by Anonymous. Collection of the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Shrine, Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec City.
France Bringing Faith to the Hurons of New France (La France apportant la foi aux Hurons de la Nouvelle-France), c. 1670, by Anonymous. Musée des Ursulines de Quebec. Collection du Monastère des Ursulines de Québec, Quebec City. Photo credit: Michel Elie.
François-Marc Gagnon viewing the Codex Canadensis at the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photo courtesy of the author.
Illustrations of sea monsters in Gaspar Schott’s Physical Curiosities (Physica Curiosa) (1697), 401. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
Interior pages from Louis Nicolas, Algonquin Grammar (Grammaire algonquine) (1674). Courtesy of gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Interior of volume 1 of The History of Animals (Historiae Animalium), by Conrad Gessner. Tigvri: Apvd Christ. Froschovervm (1551–1587). All images from this publication courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
Philip V, King of Spain (Philippe V, roi d’Espagne), 1701, by Hyacinthe Rigaud. Palace of Versailles, France (MV 8493).
Portrait of Bishop François de Montmorency-Laval, First Bishop of Quebec (Portrait de Monseigneur François de Montmorency-Laval, premier évêque de Québec), c. 1672. Attributed to Claude François (Frère Luc). Collection of the Séminaire de Québec (1995.3480), Musée de la Civilisation, Quebec City. Photo credit: Pierre Soulard.
Portrait of Cardinal de Tournon (Portrait du cardinal de Tournon), c. sixteenth century by Giovanni Capassini. Private collection, Avignon. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
Portrait of Jean Talon (Portrait de Jean Talon), 1671, by Claude François (Frère Luc). Collection of the Monastère des Augustines, Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Quebec City.
Portrait of Kateri Tekakwitha, n.d., by Anonymous. Collection of Saint-François-Xavier Mission, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Quebec. Courtesy of Wikicommons.
Purgatory (Le Purgatoire), n.d., by Anonymous. Collection of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice of Montreal (2002.0274). Photo credits: Univers Culturel de Saint-Sulpice/Pascale Bergeron.
Quebec, View from the East (Québec, vue de l’est), 1699, by Charles Bécart de Granville et de Fonville. Library and Archives Canada (H2/900/1699). NMC 24538, section 2.
A rendition of the Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and Ferdinand Verbiest from Jean Baptiste du Halde’s book Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Empire of China and Chinese Tartary (Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise) (1735). Photo courtesy of the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Saint Paul Writing His Epistles (Saint Paul écrit ses épîtres), c. 1616–20, by Valentin de Boulogne. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (BF.1991.4). Courtesy of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston.
Title page from Paul Le Jeune, Relation of What Happened in New France in 1637 (Relation de ce qui s’est passé en la Nouvelle France en l’année 1637), in the Jesuit Relations. Public domain. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) in Jacques Philippe Cornut’s History of Canadian Plants (Canadensium plantarum historia) (1635), 25. Public domain. Courtesy of Toronto Fischer Rare Book Library.
Art Canada Institute
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gagnon, François-Marc, 1935-
[Louis Nicolas. English]
Louis Nicolas: life & work / François-Marc Gagnon.
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents: Biography — Key works — Significance & critical issues — Style &
technique — Sources & resources — Where to see.
Electronic monograph in HTML, PDF and mobile formats.
ISBN 978-1-4871-0134-3 (HTML). —ISBN 978-1-4871-0135-0 (PDF).
—ISBN 978-1-4871-0136-7 (mobile)
1. Nicolas, Louis, active 1667-1675. 2. Natural history illustrators—Canada—
Biography. 3. Natural history illustration—Canada—History—17th century.
I. Nicolas, Louis, active 1667-1675. Drawings. Selections. II. Art Canada
Institute, issuing body III. Title. IV. Title: Louis Nicolas. English.
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