This is a view from the church at Château Richer overlooking the St. Lawrence with the Church at Ste. Famille on Île d’Orleans in the distance. Cruising along the river is what must be CP’s Empress of Britain.

Charles Simpson was one of the distinguished Canadian artists selected by Lord Beaverbrook to be an official war artist toward the end of The Great War. Others were Maurice Cullen and Frederick Varley. He worked primarily as an illustrator for various companies doing promotional books. To promote travel by ship across the Atlantic on Canadian Pacific’s ships in 1923, Simpson illustrated ‘Empresses of the Atlantic’, a small publication which we are unable to locate. In 1926, again for CP, Simpson was commissioned to illustrate 'Legends of the St. Lawrence' by Katherine Hale. The book does exactly that, recounts legends of regions along the river at numerous towns, beginning in Montreal and ending at the eastern end of the Gaspé peninsula. In this publication, the first illustration is not identified as to the location but loosely resembles a vantage point behind the church at Château Richer.

We are grateful to Mario Béland, PhD for his identification of the location.