What Did Champlain Really Look Like?
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Few portraits of early explorers are depicted as often as that of Champlain. Most Canadians would recognize the slightly plumpish oval face, wavy long hair, large eyes, and the distinctive well-cared-for mustache reminiscent of the one sported by the Kentucky colonel of chicken franchise fame. The original of the many variant Champlain pictures was a lithograph done by Louis C.J. Ducornet in 1854, ostensibly after a picture of the explorer by the 17th-century artist Montcornet said to be in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Numerous versions of the Ducornet picture have appeared in a myriad of publications. Sometimes Ducornet's portrait is retooled to make Champlain look like a young man (Dionne 1891) while in others he is aged (Laverdière 1870; Slafter 1880). All have the distinctive mustache in common.
As early as 1904, Victor Paltsits cast doubt on the authenticity of Ducornet's portrait, largely because the Bibliothèque Nationale had no record of a Montcornet portrait of Champlain. The matter was settled in 1920 when Henry P. Biggar found the Montcornet portrait used by Ducornet in the Bibliothèque Nationale, while he was researching his edition of Champlain's Works for The Champlain Society. The Montcornet portrait was however not of Champlain. It was an engraving made in 1654 of Michel Particelli, Controlleur-Général des Finances under Louis XIV. Paltsits' and Biggar's exposure of this fraud has in no way slowed the reproduction of Ducornet's picture, or the later variants.
The Real Champlain 
The only contemporary picture of the explorer is a tiny figure on an engraving depicting the 1609 battle on Lake Champlain. This engraving must have been prepared from a sketch done by Champlain, but it is not known to what extent the engraver changed it. What it shows is a man with a full beard. In his excellent biography of Champlain, Morris Bishop (1948) has put together a convincing description of the man:
a lean, ascetic type, dry, dark, probably rather under than over normal size; fully bearded; dark hair and eyes.
Champlain came from coastal southwestern France, hence his swarthy complexion, dark hair and eyes. He was used to great physical toil, hence a lean, ascetic body. When he was wounded in the knee during the battle with the Iroquois in 1615, individual Huron men took turns carrying him on their backs bundled in a fetal position for several days during the retreat; hence it is probable that he was below average in stature. In any case, there is no authentic picture of Champlain. Perhaps the best imaginative portrayals of the explorer are those by the great illustrator of Canadian history C.W. Jeffreys.
References
Biggar, H.P., "The Portrait of Champlain". Canadian Historical Review, vol. 1, 1920, pp. 379-80. Included are three illustrations: Ducornet's portrait, Laverdière's version, and Montcornet's original of Particelli.
Bishop, M., Champlain: The Life of Fortitude. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948.
Dionne, N.E., Samuel Champlain: Foundateur de Québec et Père de la Nouvelle-France.
Québec: A. Coté et Cie, 1891.
Laverdiére, C.-H. (ed.), Oeuvres de Champlain. Québec: Geo.-E. Desbarats, 1870.
Paltsits, V., "A Critical Examination of Champlain's Portrait". Acadiensis, vol. 4, 1904, pp. 306-311.
Slafter, E.F. (ed.), Voyages of Samuel de Champlain. Boston: The Prince Society, 1880.
By Conrad Heidenreich
