Berczy Portraits

William Berczy is considered to be Canada’s most important pre-Confederation artist. Mr. Cable has taken three of his paintings and set them to music. The first portrait is of the Woolsey family of Montreal, painted in 1809, the only group portrait in an interior setting to be found in pre-confederation art. The second is of William Berczy’s wife Charlotte, painted in 1791. The third depicts the portrait of the war chief of the Mohawks, Joseph Brant completed in 1807. Berczy had a close association with the Mohawk Confederacy and Chief Brant in establishing the Berczy settlers in Upper Canada.