Mère Marie de l'Incarnation, 1677

Artist: Pommier, Hugues (ca. 1637-1686)
Engraver: Edelinck, Jean (ca. 1643-1680)

Medium: engraving
Dimensions: 21.5 x 15.9 cm (sheet)

Marie Guyart (1599-1672), known as Marie de l'Incarnation after taking holy vows, established the Ursuline order in Canada. She arrived in Quebec in 1639, and became the confidante of the colonial civil and military adminstrators, among them Lieutenant-General Tracy (Cat. no. 3), and collaborated with Bishop Laval (Cat. no. 5). She was a voluminous and lively letter writer and her remaining correspondence offers unique insight into the social history of New France. Her body was exhumed soon after her burial so that a portrait could be made. The result, a mixture of death mask and expression of pious contemplation, was the model for this French engraving which served as the frontispiece to a collection of her letters published in 1677 and 1681.

National Archives of Canada, negative no. C-8070