Monastery of the Ursulines, Quebec

The Ursulines was a religious order of women founded at Brescia Italy in 1535, by St. Angela Merici. The order was the first institute for women dedicated exclusively for their cause. This Roman Catholic religious order was founded primarily for 1] the education of girls and 2] the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint was Saint Ursula.

The beautiful chapel was erected in 1722

Main altar above was created and gilded by Pierre-Noël Levasseur, 1736

and rebuilt in its current form in 1902.

Centre de Conservation de Québec

The Ursuline Sisters were the first Catholic nuns to land in New France/Canada. The history of the Ursulines in Quebec began in Aug 1639, when its first members arrived. The monastery was established under the leadership of Mother St Marie of the Incarnation (1599–1672), an Ursuline nun of the monastery in Tours, and Madame Marie-Madeline de Chauvigny de la Peltrie (1603–1671), a rich widow from Alençon in Normandy. The letters patent sanctioning the foundation issued by King Louis XIII were dated 1639.

The Viceroyalty of New France was the area colonised by France in North America starting with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Québec in 1608 among the Algonquin people as the administrative seat for New France. Colonisation was slow and difficult. Many settlers died early, because of harsh weather and diseases. In 1630, there were only 103 colonists living in the settlement, but by 1640 there were 355.

Marie de l'Incarnation, the founder of Quebec's Community of the Ursulines, played a key role during New France's first decades. The original monastery, whose construction she oversaw, also housed the colony's first school for young girls. Today this pioneering institution is an impressive teaching complex that has preserved the Ursuline's original mission intact to this day. The Ecole des Ursulines is among North America's oldest schools. Still operating as a private school for both girls and boys, it was founded in 1639.

In Aug 1639, Ursuline nuns from France, including Marie de l'Incarnation who spearheaded the missionary endeavor they'd come to America for, landed at Quebec. Two years later a first monastery was completed, and the Ursulines opened the colony's first school for at first a few Aboriginal girls, then students of French origin. 30 years later, this school was attended only by girls of French background.

The first Ursulines acquired a reputation in embroidery art, know-how they passed down for three centuries. Over time they produced a vast quantity of altar frontals and liturgical vestments in silk, wool and gold thread. Much of this liturgical treasure has survived to the present day.

The monastery had first endured the siege and bombardment of Quebec under William Phips in 1690. During the Siege of Quebec in 1759, the Ursuline monastery was partly destroyed by the shelling. A second siege by James Wolfe in Sept 1759, called the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, was where the garrison of Quebec was defeated by Wolfe's army. After the battle, the French Gov Montcalm who had died there, was buried by night in the monastery chapel. The first English governor Murray used part of the monastery as his headquarters. On that occasion the rations served to the nuns for nursing the wounded and sick saved them from perishing of starvation. The governors and viceroys, both English and French, were always friendly to the institution.

After the city surrendered, the nuns agreed to provide British officers and soldiers with rooms & medical care because Hôtel-Dieu and Hôpital Général were filled to capacity. In exchange they could resume teaching. For a short time, this included English Protestants.

In the C19th, the institution enjoyed tremendous growth. Thanks to the talents of the teaching sisters and the use of modern instructional principles that stressed understanding more than learning by rote, the school earned great acclaim. Other than religious studies, students were taught grammar, French and English literature, arithmetic, geography, history, science, and the arts—music, drawing, painting, and of course embroidery. The Ursulines' school attracted a mostly middle-class clientele.

A boarding school modelled on the monastic way of life. Many of the students were boarders. These young girls adopted a lifestyle similar to that of the cloistered nuns. They slept in dormitories and followed a strict daily schedule. They were imposed a rule of silence at dinnertime and bedtime. They were allowed to have visitors in the parlor so long as the conversation took place behind a screen, the same as for the nuns. The monastic way of life became laxer during the C20th.

A precious historical heritage. The architectural complex of the Ursulines of Quebec monastery was built in phases from the 17th to the 20th. The main wings were laid out around an interior court, in the fashion of C17th French convents. The oldest buildings preserved the style specific to the French Regime—stone walls with white plaster, tin roofs, and small-paned windows.

The sculpted decor inside the monastery is one of only a few remaining examples of church interiors during the New France period. Its oldest section is open to the public, as is the funeral chapel of the founder, Marie de l’Incarnation. A more recent lateral wing is reserved for the Ursuline nuns.
Preserving and presenting their heritage

In addition to their teaching vocation, exercised almost without interruption since the first school began operating, the Ursulines opened a museum to display a part of their collections. However, the institution parted with one of its core traditions recently—now the elementary school admits boys, too. The Museum is housed in the Madame-de La Peltrie house, a building erected in 1836 and enhanced in 1868. This house is an integral part of the Ursuline monastery, the greatest treasure of convent architecture in Quebec, in the province of Quebec and probably in North America. The Museum presents high-quality permanent and temporary exhibitions on three floors highlighting the cultural legacy of the Ursulines.

The Ursuline Museum stages exhibits with different themes each year,

permanent exhibitions in the old refectory and guided visits to the historic chapel.

Today the Ursulines face the same problem as many other religious communities grappling with a shortage of vocations: conservation, development and transmission of their invaluable material and spiritual legacy. With assistance from various working groups, they are trying to find the best way of ensuring that the legacy lives on.

The Ursuline Monastery of Quebec City was founded by a missionary group of Ursuline nuns in 1639 under leadership of Mother Marie of the Incarnation, O.S.U. It is the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Today the monastery serves as the General Motherhouse of the Ursuline Sisters of the Canadian Union. The community there also operates an historical museum and continues to serve as a teaching centre. The complex was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1972.

When they arrived in summer 1639, the nuns studied the languages of native peoples and then began to educate native children. They taught reading and writing plus needlework, embroidery, drawing and other domestic arts. After 3 years spent in the Lower Town of Quebec City, the nuns moved to a new monastery built on ground ceded to them by the Co. of New France. Their first pupils were Indian girls, with whom they succeeded better than the Jesuits with their native boys. The first monastery burned down in 1650, but was soon rebuilt. The community was attacked by the Iroquois in 1661–2, when one of its chaplains, Sulpician Abbé Vignal, was slain near Montreal.

The Constitutions, written by Father Jérôme Lalemant (1593–1673), uncle of the Jesuit martyr Gabriel Lalemant, combined the rules of the two Congregations of Paris and Bordeaux, and were observed until Bishop François de Laval decided in 1681 in favour of the former, which binds its members by a fourth vow to teach girls.

The Quebec Monastery founded new communities at Three Rivers in 1697, Roberval in 1882, Stanstead in 1884, and Rimouski, with a normal school, in 1906, besides sending missionaries to New Orleans in 1822, Charlestown (Boston) in 1824, Galveston in 1849 and Montana in 1893.

Ursuline Convent. This is one of the most impressive religious complexes in Quebec. From the school yard, visit the beautiful courtyard and garden, distinctive stone hallway, and attic where the sisters keep their personal lockers. You can also visit the marvellous chapel. Nestled in the heart of Old Quebec, the Ursuline Chapel is a jewel of history and architecture. Built in 1722, the chapel was rebuilt in its current form in 1902. It houses several treasures, including the carved wood decor, created by Pierre-Noël Levasseur and his workshop from 1726-36. It was the Ursulines who carried out the meticulous work of gilding the entire ensemble with gold leaf from 1736-9. Several art historians agree that this is the most beautiful set of wood sculptures from the New France era to survive in Canada. It is also the only example of religious decor from this period preserved in its entirety.

Chapel of the monastery

The chapel also houses 15+ paintings, most of which come from the Desjardins Fund. This fund, established by abbots Philippe-Jean-Louis and Louis-Joseph Desjardins in the C19th, enabled sending c200 European paintings to Quebec.

Many thanks to Parks Canada, Directory of Federal Heritage Designations.

Sydney massacre; honoured in Adelaide

15 innocent victims were massacred on Bondi Beach Sydney in a shocking attack last weekend. Excited families had been standing on the Bondi sand, celebrating the most festive holiday in the Jewish calendar, Channuka. When two men suddenly came out firing their rifles, innocent people ran away and hid; tackled the gunmen with their bare hands; or died. Two policemen, there to protect the families, were themselves shot. The whole nation was in shock - Jews and Christians, parents and grandparents

The victims were remembered this week in Adelaide as The 3rd Cricket Test Match between Australia & England was starting. “After the tragic events at Bondi Beach last Sunday evening, we come together as nations to pay our respects to all those who lost their lives and offer our condolences to their families, their friends and to the Jewish community. We also acknowledge those who bravely offered assistance to others at the scene,” the ground announcer said. The 60,000 cricket fans stood silently in the grand-stands, the cricketers all wore black armbands, and the flags were held silently in respect. A minute’s silence at Adelaide Oval was to honour the murder victims and to express condolences to their families, friends and the Jewish community.

60,000 cricket fans at the Adelaide Test Match

plus the two teans and flags

standing and remembering the mass murders on Bondi Beach

John Williamson was singing at the cricket in the centre of the huge green pitch, leading a stirring tribute at Adelaide Oval as the cricket world paused to remember the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack. Cricket fans in the stands came together in silence to remember the murder victims and then to watch the cricket.

It was a powerful moment before the match started in Adelaide as John Williamson sang the Australian classic True Blue. In one of the finest cricket ovals in the world there was not a dry eye in the house for that moment of silence, followed by a stirring rendition of the music. True Blue was sadly perfect on this occasion; a beautiful and poignant rendition of a classic Aussie song and a single guitar.

Lyrics
Hey True Blue, don't say you've gone
Say you've knocked off for a smoko
And you'll be back later on
Hey True Blue, Hey True Blue

Give it to me straight, face to face
Are you really disappearing
Just another dying race
Hey True Blue

True Blue, is it me and you
Is it Mum and Dad, is it a cockatoo
Is it standin' by your mate when he's in a fight
Or just Vegemiite
True Blue, I'm a-asking you

Hey True Blue, can you bear the load
Will you tie it up with wire
Just to keep the show on the road
Hey True Blue
Hey True Blue, now be Fair Dinkum

Is your heart still there
If they sell us out like sponge cake
Do you really care
Hey True Blue

Listen to the heartfelt music on cricket.com 

John Williamson singing True Blue

and playing the one guitar.

True Blue was written and performed by folk singer-songwriter John Williamson, and released in 1982. Williamson’s aim had been to capture authentic Australian spirit and slang, and to become an unofficial national anthem celebrating mateship and the Aussie character. The lyrics drew heavily on Australian slang, with the title meaning authentically Australian, but the slang meant of course that people from other countries may not have understood the song’s details.

John Williamson said he celebrated the genuine, loyal and cultural references, to define a core national identity, but he emphasised it was about caring, inclusive people, not racism, despite attempts by some groups to hijack the song. The phrase itself apparently came from British slang meaning steadfast loyalty. But Williamson's song applied it to an Australian context, asking questions about what makes an Aussie in a changing multi-cultural nation, focusing on fairness, honesty and caring for mates and the land. No song could have been appropriate for a nation in mourning.

Sydney mourners after the wounded were taken to hospital and the dead were buried

Thank you John Williamson, thank you cricket players and fans, thank you all Australians across the nation.  We will never recover, but your comfort has been vital.

The Edwardians: Age of Elegance Exhibit

The Edwardian era was always my favourite to read and write about. Health care services improved, mortality declined, literacy spread widely, women’s rights were debated, New Zealand & Australia women were enfran-chised, trade unionism increased and the arts and sports were now widely available. Canada federated progressively, while Australian & South African states unified.

Royal portraits and coronation cloaks

Visit London

So I was keen to see what The Edwardians: Age of Elegance Exhibition in 2025 in King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace focused on. The exhibition went back into late Victorian era to examine the patronage of Albert Prince of Wales/King Edward VII & wife Alexandra of Denmark. The couple married in 1863, soon after Queen Victoria was widowed and withdrew from public life. Thus the young royals were leading taste-makers in society, well before 1901.

Winterhalter portraits of Edward and Alexandra, 1864

the year after their wedding.

jennifereremeeva

Queen Victoria’s son reigned on her death but unlike his very elderly mother, he died too soon 1910. Edward’s son King George V & wife Mary of Teck reigned from 1910-36, but the Edwardian Era will be labelled thus until the Golden Age ended with WW1 carnage. Thank you to Visit London & jennifereremeeva.

Court pageantry was seen in fine art eg Danish Laurits Tuxen’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace 1897-9 and Family of Queen Victoria at her 1887 golden jubilee. The theme then focussed on the lavish court world. Note the opulent coronation robes of George & Mary and jewels.

Edward and Alexandra were patrons of leading artists: HE owned works by popular Victorian artist Frederic Leighton, while SHE collected art by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne Jones. Alexandra also supported Minton’s Pottery Studio in 1870s, patronising women artists. And Alexandra, like many upper-class Victorian women, was a keen photographer.

Laurits Tuxen, Family of Queen Victoria, 

1887, Historian About Town

Global royal patronage was regular. Alexandra’s Danish heritage was seen in Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Co. art, including a huge porcelain cabinet with an ornamental roof. And objects were also collected on visits and in diplomatic exchange with the colonies: India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Africa. In the late C19th, better travel networks made the world closer, so the royal family travelled further and more often. These visits played an important role in Britain’s imperial identity eg in 1875-6 Edward toured India, producing an array of diplomatic gifts.

In 1871 Waverley Ball commemorated the 100th anniversary of Romantic author Sir Walter Scott and raised funds for the Scott Memorial in Edinburgh. Guests were dressed in costumes inspired by Scott’s Waverley literature. Edward went as Lord of Isles, titular character of an old poem, while Alexandra went as Mary Queen of Scots in the novel The Abbot. Emperor Pedro II of Brazil also attended

Edward and Alexandra hosted a Fancy Ball at Marlborough House in 1874. Actors, artists, aristocrats, musicians, politicians and bankers, called The Marlborough House Set, were invited. Named after their Pall Mall home, they were arbiters of fashion and taste, embracing new movements eg Art Nouveau & Arts and Crafts. Artist Godefroy Durand made a watercolour of the event, which showed Edward in fancy dress as Charles I, with Alexandra in Venetian costume.

A great party was the Devonshire House ball to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee 1897. 700+ invitations went out and James Lafayette photographed the guests. Edward was dressed as a Knight of Malta and Alexandra went as the C16th French queen Marguerite de Valois. Daughters Victoria and Maud, together with Maud’s husband, Prince Charles of Denmark, wore the costumes of her courtiers. And an early royal garden parties was at Buckingham Palace in 1897, marking Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, quickly becoming part of the royal calendar. While keeping strict dress codes, the Prince & Princess of Wales surrounded themselves with fashionable society figures.

A group of artists were portraying members of the set. Philip de László was renowned for his glamorous and natural portraits. In one painting of Princess Andrew of Greece-Denmark/Alice of Battenberg, George V’s cousin, he depicted the Princess in an elegant pose. A highlight of C20th royal portraiture was a striking painting of Queen Alexandra by François Flameng in 1908. In her mid-60s, she was presented as a fashion leader, promoting Cartier choker-necklaces. The best-known society portraitist of the era was by John Singer Sargent who painted Edward’s brother Arthur, Duke of Connaught & wife Duchess Louise 1908. And depicted folds of the Duchess’ dark silk and chiffon sleeves.

The social season also included sporting events eg horse racing during Royal Ascot week in June. The royal stables produced some important racehorses in the 1890s, including the famed Persimmon who won the Epsom Derby and the Ascot Gold Cup. And note the yacht racing at Cowes Isle of Wight. A small seal, enamelled in royal racing colours, marked 1896 when Britannia won 14 yacht races! And the exhibition revealed the royals’ loved dogs!

Fans and jewels

King's Gallery

Visit London

Edward and Alexandra watched theatre goers, actors and musicians in their social set. A bronze inkwell self-portrait by actress Sarah Bernhardt was in Edward’s Marlborough House study. Alexandra was a skilled pianist and Puccini's opera La Fanciulla del West of 1910 was dedicated to her.

For the royal family, and everyone, the age of glamour abruptly ended in WW1. By then Edward’s son, King George V, was on the throne. Both George and his wife Queen Mary visited the battlefields of Northern Europe to meet troops and boost morale, the first time a monarch had visited a warzone in over a century. The art collected by the royal family in this wartime period reflected a solemn purpose. George V collected military relics and images of the Western Front, including the bleak landscapes by photographer Olive Edis, Britain’s first female war photographer. She recorded the devastation caused by bombing and artillery to the buildings of France and Belgium

The monarchy which emerged after WW1 ended in late 1918 displayed a strong sense of duty. See Frank Salisbury's image of the first ceremony at the Whitehall Cenotaph Nov 1920, where King George V led the nation in collective mourning.

international gifts to the royals

todaytix

Philip de Laszlo, Hungary's finest portraitist! Spy?

László, Portrait of Franz Joseph I

in hussar field marshal's uniform, 1899

Hungarian National Museum

Philip de Laszlo: His Life and Art is a 2010 biography by Duff Hart-Davis, based on the artist’s papers, letters, press cut­t­ings and diaries. Hart-Davis was qualified to do the writing; he was related to King George III and to two of my favourite historians Duff Cooper and son John Julius Norwich. The author’s connections to royal, ar­is­tocratic and literary circles were clear, even in art history. The 145 plates in his book were fine examples of de Laszlo’s portraits.

Fulop Laub (1869-1937) was born in Budapest to a Jewish tailor. Due to hard work and talent, he joined Hungary’s Nat­ion­al Academy of Arts, then studied in Munich and Paris. Once he'd converted to Catholicism in 1894 and Hungar­ianised his name to Philip de Laszlo, royal commis­s­ions arrived eg Aust­rian Emperor Franz Joseph, Pope Leo XIII, Kaiser Wilhelm II, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. And Presidents Theodore Roosevelt & Calvin Coolidge. His career matched the final peak of Europe’s last great royal courts!

Crown Princess Cecilie of Germany, 1908

Prussian Palaces and Gardens, Berlin

Wiki

In 1892 he met Lucy Guinness, from the wealthy Ir­ish Protestant bank­ing family. They married in 1900, built a refined house in Pest, had 6 children, raised into the Hung­arian nobility by Emperor Franz Josef, convert­ed to An­g­lic­anism and moved to Vienna.

Eventually he needed a bigger stage: Britain. From 1907 on, when he was based in London and joined the Royal Society of Brit­­ish Art­ists, de Laszlo’s career boomed. But the tim­ing was problematic. As war with Germany and ally Austro-Hungary approached, de László needed to become a British subject to protect his sons from con­scription into Hungary’s army. Citizenship came in 1914!

In Berlin, outbreak of host­il­ities in Aug 1914 saw wild demonst­ra­t­ions against for­eigners. And in return, spy fever generated by WW1 placed many imm­igrants in Britain und­er sus­pic­ion. In May 1915 a German U-boat sank the Lusitania off Ireland’s SW coast, kil­ling 1200 pass­en­gers and crew. The Times demanded internment of Bri­tain’s c9,000 nat­ur­alised aliens, children excluded from schools and property taken. Thankfully P.M Asquith prot­ected naturalised Brit­ons.

de László was concerned for his family in Budapest, who depended on him for financial support. The Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs in London suggested he use the Dutch diplomatic bag because all ordinary post to Holland was censored. Although neut­ral, the Dutch were con­sidered pro-German and closely monitor­ed.

MI5 knew who was going in and out of de László’s studio, and they in­tercepted his mail. The case against him became more serious in July 1917 when a report, attributed to de László, revealed British maritime los­ses and mine product­ion; that the king wanted the war to end; and that Alsace-Lorraine wasn’t worth fighting for. It suggested that de László was desperate to have his Hungarian nationality restored! Above all, they found, de László was a con­vert­ed Jew with a wide social circle that included an entrée to British and German courts.

de László was grilled by Basil Thomson (Special Branch) and Ver­non Kell (MI5) in Aug 1917. If MI5 couldn’t intern de László for pacifism, they might convince people that he’d abused the diplomatic bag, creat­ing secret cont­acts with the en­emy. So they sent de László to Brixton Prison in Sept 1917, until a nervous breakdown saw him freed.

The attitude to aliens in Britain worsened. In July 1918, Evening News called it "Enemy Alien Week"; a rally was held in Tra­f­algar Square; vigil­an­te groups hunted for Ger­man spies. And negative attitudes to natur­al­ised Britons didn’t al­ter with war’s end in Nov 1918. A news­paper editorial demanded to know what MI5 had un­ear­th­ed on de László. & the case was debated in the House of Lords, May 1919! None­­theless the case against the art­ist was still brought before the Denatur­al­is­ation Comm­ittee. His 5-day hearing took place in June 1919. The pro­s­ecution in­c­luded Att­or­ney General Sir Gordon Hewart while De László’s defence team included ex-Home Secr­etary, Sir John Sim­on. The 3-man committee took merely 15 minutes to dismiss the case.

Princess Beatrice, 1926

Royal Collection

Wiki

King Umberto II of Italy, 1928

private collection

Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), 1925

Royal Collection Trust

Unbelievably Philip’s career was not destroyed. In the 1920s-30s, this international, multi-lingual man was invited all over Europe and North America to paint the portraits of important royals, nobles and church leaders. Consider a few examples: Lord Richard Percy and Lady Diana Percy (1922, 1924); Queen Marie of Romania (1924); Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark (1925); Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and Lady Edwina Mount­batten (1925); U.S Presid­ent Calvin Cool­idge (1926); Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canter­b­ury (1926); King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1927); Prince Louis II and Princess Charl­otte of Monaco (1928); George Bell Bishop of Chichester (1931); Andrew Mellon (1931); and Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury (1932).

Archbishop of Canterbury, 1937

Lambeth Palace, London

He was widely respected, and elected president of Royal Society of British Artists in 1930. So see the portraits, cat­alogue and exhibitions in the de Laszlo Archive.  And perhaps read Giles MacDonogh, To Frame a Painter | History Today, Feb 2021.