L'Assemblée des six-comtés (painting)

L'Assemblée des six-comtés (French for "The Assembly of the Six Counties"), also known as Manifestation des Canadiens contre le gouvernement anglais, à Saint-Charles, en 1837 ("Demonstration of the Canadiens against the English government, at Saint-Charles, in 1837"), is a large oil painting executed on canvas by Ontario artist Charles Alexander Smith in 1890.

It depicts the Assembly of the Six Counties, an event in 1837, part of the history of Quebec and the Patriote movement. It is displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Quebec City.

The picture includes many elements of what is known about the Patriote movement and their time. It features a number of Patriote leaders, upon the stage at the right, with accurate appearance. Patriote leader Louis-Joseph Papineau is shown in a speech to the crowd. At the bottom right stand three flags. From the left, the first represents the influence the Patriotes received from the French Revolution, the second is the Patriote flag and the third embodies the admiration of the Patriote for the American Revolution. The Patriote flag remains a visual leitmotiv across the composition.

The right field profusely displays maple leaves, a symbol of the French Canadians of the time (they have now been discarded by their modern-day Québécois and Quebec nationalist successors because of their appropriation by the Canadian federation). In the same section is the Coat of arms of Quebec, leaning upon the wooden stage structure (one anachronistic detail, as this version, contemporary to the painting's execution, is the first arms of Quebec post-Confederation, granted in 1868).

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