Featured Pipe Smoker: François Gros Louis

François Gros Louis

When I began building my collection of pictures like this several years ago, I found many that came with little or no information, such as this one. You won't find an entry for this person on Wikipedia, but it is very picturesque and worthy of inclusion.

My notes on this photo, taken from whatever book I scanned it from (I think it was one of those Time Life Old West books) are that it was taken in the early 1800's in Canada. This photo is of a Huron-Wendat trapper named François Gros Louis who posed for this portrait with all the accoutrements of his trade: steel traps, furs, his rifle (held in his left hand, wrapped in fur) and his pipe. I don't know anything else about him. His pipe was most likely made from antler or bone.

From comments:

François Gros-Louis alias Tekionde was a Huron-Wendat ( Québec native person ) father of François Gros-Louis alias La Plume father of Francis Gros-Louis alias Sassennio who married Rosalie Picard Huron-Wendat. Francis and Rosalie had many children which follows another 5 generations which most of them married native people. So Mr. François Gros-Louis is a pure native from Québec and not a French-Canadian trapper, a real Huron-Wendat! This is a message from his from his great-great-great-great-great grand son Huron-Wendat Québec.

UPDATE: A reader has sent me another interesting graphic and some information. First, the picture.


The photo was taken by William Notman in1866, and the painting recreated from the photo was also by Notman, made in 1882. Notman was born in Scotland in 1826 and moved to Montreal in 1856. He was an amateur photographer whose talent turned him professional. He was, according to Wikipedia, "the first Canadian photographer with an international reputation," and some of his photos, which he sent as a gift to Queen Victoria, earned him the title of "Photographer to the Queen."