Quotation
The great purpose of landscape art is to make us at home in our own country.
Books
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ResearchLogos Group of Seven Art Gallery
Powerpoint: The Road to Expressionism
COPAC UK: Group of Seven
Library of Canada: Group of Seven
Library of Congress: Group of Seven
Biographical
This quote above was called an "Algomaxim," a word created to express the sentiments of the soon to be created Group of Seven. Long before the group of Seven was formed Carl Ahrens (1862-1936), a Canadian impressionist artist had argued for a Canadian art free from "alien influences." He campaigned for a group of pioneers who would ignore foreign trends and set a national standard independent of the currents of Post-Impressionism and Futurism.
But it was an artist named Tom Thomson (1877-1917) whose inspiration and drive led directly to the formation of the Group of Seven. Thomson was a photo-engraver before moving to Toronto in 1905 where he eventually took a job at the design firm Grip Limited where he met J.E.H. MacDonald, with whom he started going on weekend sketching trips to nearby lakes. He made his first trip to Algonquin Park, Ontario, in the summer of 1912. He spent the summers from 1913 to 1917 as a ranger in Algonquin Park where he made numerous sketches of the rugged northern landscapes. He was active as a painter for only four years before his mysterious and untimely death. Although a close friend of several of the members of the Group of Seven, his death in 1917 occured three years before the group was officially formed.
In 1920, J.E.H. MacDonald (1873-1932), Lawren Harris (1885-1970), A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), F.H. Varley (1881-1969) and Frank Johnston (1888-1949) officially formed this now famous group. These were painters bitten by the Canadian north who, for the first time, took on the task of painting the great power, scenery and spirit of their land. This truly Canadian art movement was started, not by professional painters, but by a loose association of acquaintances who travelled north from Toronto on their vacations to paint and relax. The modern Canadian so called 'school', was inspired as the result of a direct contact with nature itself. In 1924 one of the original founding members Frank Johnston resigned from the Group. Later the original Group of Seven (now six members) was expanded to nine members with the addition of A.J. (Alfred Joseph) Casson (1898-1992), Edwin Holgate (1892-1977) and Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald (1890-1956), the only western canadian member and a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters.
The Group of Seven was disbanded in 1932 after the death of its inspirational founder J.E.H. MacDonald and succeeded by the Canadian Group of Painters (see above). The influence of the Group of Seven art movement is seen in the works of many other artists of this period. These include: Bertram Brooker (1888-1955), Thoreau MacDonald (1901-1989), Charles Comfort (1900-1994), Anne Savage (1896-1971), Arthur Heming (1870-1940), Sarah Robertson (1891-1948), Albert H. Robinson (1881-1956), Emily Carr (1871-1945), David Milne (1882-1953), Bess Housser (1890-1969) (married to Lawren Harris), and Archibald Barnes (1887-1971). [Adapted from Canadian Government Group of Seven Web Site]
Logos Group of Seven Art Gallery
Art Gallery: A.J. Casson : Afternoon Sky (1926)
Art Gallery: A.J. Casson: Mill Houses (1928)
Art Gallery: A.J. Casson: October (1928)
Art Gallery: A.Y. Jackson: Herring Cove, Nova Scotia (1919)
Art Gallery: A.Y. Jackson: Manseau, Quebec (c. 1926)
Art Gallery: A.Y. Jackson: Morning (1924)
Art Gallery: A.Y. Jackson: Springtime in Picardy (1919)
Art Gallery: A.Y. Jackson: Terre Sauvage (1913)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: A Factory Town - North of England (1924)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: Evening Silhouette, Georgian Bay (1928)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: Halifax Harbour, Time of War (1918)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: Isles of Spruce, Algoma (1922)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: Pines, Georgian Bay (1927)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: Quebec Village (1926)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: The Glacier (1928)
Art Gallery: Arthur Lismer: The Mill, Quebec (1925)
Art Gallery: Edwin Holgate : Nude (1930)
Art Gallery: F.H. Johnston: Fire Swept - Algoma (1920)
Art Gallery: Frank Carmichael: Autumn Hillside (1920)
Art Gallery: Frank Carmichael: In the Nickel Belt (1928)
Art Gallery: Frederick Varley: Red Rock and Snow (1927/8)
Art Gallery: Frederick Varley: The Sunken Road (1918)
Art Gallery: J.E.H MacDonald: Rain in the Mountains (1924)
Art Gallery: J.E.H MacDonald: The Wild River (1919)
Art Gallery: J.E.H. MacDonald: The Tangled Garden (1916)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: A Side Street (1920)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Autumn, Algoma (1920)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Black Court, Halifax (1921)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Dr. Salem Bland (1925)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: First Snow (1923)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: From the North Shore (c. 1927)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Grey Day in Town (1923)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Icebergs, Davis Strait (1930)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: In the Ward (1920)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Isolation Peak, Rocky Mountains (1930)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: January Thaw, Edge of Town (1921)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Maligne Lake, Jasper Park (1924)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Miners' Houses, Glace Bay (1925)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Morning Light, Lake Superior (c. 1927)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Mount Lefroy (1930)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Mountains and Lake (1929)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Northern Lake II (c. 1926)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Ontario Hill Town (1926)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Shacks (1919)
Art Gallery: Lawren S. Harris: Spring on the Oxtongue River (1924)
Books from Alibris: Group of Seven
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