This is a dramatic painting by Cornelius Krieghoff featuring a lone canoeist, a Canadian voyageur, navigating a birchbark canoe through a turbulent set of rapids apparently located at Lachine, Quebec. The white-capped waves crashing around the canoe, highlight the ability of the voyageur maneuvering through the churning water.

Even today the Lachine Rapids can be ferocious and popular among white water sports enthusiasts.

This is one of the earliest recorded paintings by Cornelius Krieghoff who presented romanticized versions of life in Lower Canada in his day. The rich detail of the voyageur’s dress, a red tuque, a hooded, knee-length coat made from thick wool, often Hudson’s Bay point blanket material, an essential in colder weather, and a traditional ceinture fléchée sash as well as his description of his canoe and the geometric motif on his paddle, serve as rare and important documentation in colour of Canadian social and cultural history.