Frances Brooke, ca. 1771
Artist: Read, Catherine (1723-1778)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 72.4 x 60 cm

Frances Brooke (1724-1789) was an English writer who in 1763 joined her husband at Quebec City where he was serving as chaplain to the army garrison. During the five years she spent in Canada, she wrote The History of Emily Montague, considered the first novel written in Canada. It was published in 1769 in London and includes details of the social, political and natural setting of Canada, based, of course, on Brooke's own experience.

In this portrait, Mrs. Brooke is portrayed in the guise of a sibyl (a female prophet of ancent times), wearing a romantic costume and holding a book, a symbol of knowledge. Such role playing in portraiture was not uncommon; female writers, actors and artists were often portrayed as sibyls, their spiritual foremothers.

National Archives of Canada, negative no. C-117373