Louise and Emilie (Portrait of the Artist’s Wife and Daughter), 1845

Watson Art Galleries, Montreal Mrs. Percy C. Miller, Toronto Masters Gallery Ltd., Calgary Peter Ohler Fine Arts Ltd.,Vancouver Private Collection, Calgary

Marius Barbeau, Cornelius Krieghoff (Gallery of Canadian Art 1), Toronto, 1962, reproduced page 6

Louise Gautier dit Saint-Germain was the daughter of the local butcher and baker “La Pocane,” of the village of Longueuil. She rode on the newly built railway to New York City, where she met Cornelius and Ernest Krieghoff at a hotel. After a brief period in the United States Army, the artist returned with Louise to her parental home in Longueuil with the promise of a comfortable home and career. This marks the beginning of Krieghoff's career of chronicling life and landscape in French Canada. Louise appears with their daughter in Krieghoff's portrait “Louise and Emilie”. Emilie wears a medallion on her neck containing a picture of her father. The painting serves as a companion to the artist's own self-portrait, which resides in the National Gallery. In later years, Louise and Emilie reappear in many of Krieghoff's compositions as models of habitant life and activities.