Frances Anne Hopkins, a British artist married to a Hudson’s Bay Company official, painted this work as a gift for Colonel Joseph Wolseley, who was sent to Red River Colony (today Manitoba) to overthrow its Métis leader, Louis Riel. She based the work on press reports as well as sketches she had made while travelling in the area alongside voyageurs—indentured servants who transported goods in the fur trade—during the 1860s. Wolseley can be seen in the elaborate canoe in the center, while Hopkins and her husband are seated in the green York boat at the bottom right.