"Loing du Soleil" : architectural practice in Quebec City during the French regime

Abstract

In my dissertation, I study the conditions in which architecture was produced in Quebec City, capital of New France, at the end of the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The first part deals with the attitude of institutional clients, for whom buildings constituted an important means by which to establish power and social status in the colony. The architectural qualities of their buildings, expressing the prestige of the various institutions, were by the same token a source of competition and conflict among them. This competition was witnessed by the local population through its impact within the city fabric as well as by Louis XIV by means of city views that were regularly sent to France. The second part of my dissertation presents the careers of the architects Claude Baillif, Hilaire Bernard de La Riviere, Joseph Maillou, and Jean-Baptiste Maillou. All were master masons who earned the title of architect by working for prestigious clients and by participating in the design of important buildings. However, the desire for social promotion led some of these builders away from architecture. Some attempted to go into trade, but the most likely way for an architect to improve his social status was for him to seek a small royal office such as those of public notary or land surveyor. In that way, the attitudes of architects and their clients were characteristic of French ancien regime society as a whole, a society in which, on one hand, social status was perceived through architecture, clothing, food, and the like and, on the other hand, social ascension often led to changes in activity that appear quite radical today.