A Life Shaped by the Academy Born in Quebec City on October 10, 1845, Joseph-Eugène-Arthur Hamel entered a world of commerce as the son of a prosperous merchant. His early years were defined by a disciplined pursuit of draftsmanship, beginning with an apprenticeship under his uncle, Théophile Hamel, a respected portraitist. This foundational period provided him with the technical rigor that would later define his professional output. A…