Franklin Carmichael (May 4, 1890 – October 24, 1945) was a Canadian artist and member of the
Group of Seven
The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...
. Though he was primarily famous for his use of
watercolours
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...
, he also used
oil paints
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnis ...
,
charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
and other media to capture the
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
. Besides his work as a painter, he worked as a designer and
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
, creating promotional brochures, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and designing books. Near the end of his life, Carmichael taught in the Graphic Design and Commercial Art Department at the
Ontario College of Art
Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...
(today the Ontario College of Art & Design University).
The youngest original member of the Group of Seven, Carmichael often found himself socially on the outside of the group. Despite this, the art he produced was of equal measure in terms of style and approach to the other members' contributions, vividly expressing his spiritual views through his art. The next youngest member was
A. J. Casson
Alfred Joseph Casson LL. D. (May 17, 1898 – February 20, 1992) was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Cas ...
with whom he was friendly.
Biography
Early years
Franklin Carmichael was born in 1890 in
Orillia
Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is in Simcoe County between Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a single-tier municipality. It is part of the Huronia region of Cent ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, the son of David Graham and Susannah Eleanor (Smith) Carmichael. Because his artistic talents were already apparent at a very young age, his mother enrolled him in both music and art lessons.
As a teenager, Carmichael worked in his father's
carriage
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping an ...
making shop as a striper. In decorating the carriages he practiced his design, drawing, and colouring skills.
Emerging artist (1910–1920)
In 1910, at the age of twenty, Carmichael arrived in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and entered the
Ontario College of Art
Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...
, where he studied with
William Cruickshank and
George Reid
Sir George Houston Reid, (25 February 1845 – 12 September 1918) was an Australian politician who led the Reid Government as the fourth Prime Minister of Australia from 1904 to 1905, having previously been Premier of New South Wales f ...
. Among his fellow students was
Gustav Hahn
Gustav Hahn (27 July 1866 – 1 December 1962) was a German Canadian painter, muralist and interior decorator who pioneered the Art Nouveau style in Canada. Hahn was also an amateur astronomer, and his father, Otto Hahn, owned a collection of ...
.
![The Studio Building 2, Toronto, Canada](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/The_Studio_Building_2%2C_Toronto%2C_Canada.jpg)
By 1911, he began working as an apprentice at
Grip Ltd. making $2.50 a week. Late in the year,
Lawren Harris
Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art. ...
and
J. E. H. MacDonald
James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-Canadian artist, best known as a member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the ear ...
began sketching together, soon to be joined by Carmichael and his coworkers at Grip, including
Arthur Lismer
Arthur Lismer, LL. D. (27 June 1885 – 23 March 1969) was an English-Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven and educator. He is known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage.
Early life ...
,
Tom Thomson
Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His w ...
and
Frank Johnston. By 1913, the excursions also included
Frederick Varley
Frederick Horsman Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969) was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven.
Career Early life
Varley was born in Sheffield, England, in 1881, the son of Lucy (Barstow) and Samuel James Smith Varley the 7th. He ...
and
A.Y. Jackson
Alexander Young Jackson LL. D. (October 3, 1882April 5, 1974) was a Canadian painter and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Jackson made a significant contribution to the development of art in Canada, and was instrumental in bringing toget ...
.
Carmichael moved to
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
in 1913 to study painting at
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels (french: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts - École supérieure des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles (ARBA-ESA), nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Brussel), is an art school established in Br ...
. Due to the outbreak of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he cut his studies short and returned to his native Ontario in September 1914, rejoining Thomson, Macdonald, Lismer, Varley and Johnston.
Staying in Toronto during the war, they struggled in the depressed wartime economy.
During the fall of 1914, he moved into the
Studio Building and shared a space with Thomson over the winter.
Carmichael and the members of the group were frustrated by their initial attempts to capture the untouched "savage" land of Canada, with the particular characteristics of the land difficult to represent in the European tradition. Jackson would write that, "after painting in Europe where everything was mellowed by time and human associations, I found it a problem to paint a country in outward appearance pretty much as it had been when
Champlain passed through its thousands of rock islands three hundred years before."
It would be only after the group discovered the paintings of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
that they would begin to move in a coherent direction. According to MacDonald, the Scandinavian painters "seemed to be a lot of men not trying to express themselves so much as trying to express something that took hold of themselves. The painters began with nature rather than with art."
Thomson invited Carmichael on a sketching trip to Algonquin Park in the fall of 1915. Carmichael could not go because of his September 15 marriage to Ada Lillian Went.
Group of Seven (1920–1932)
In April 1920, the Group of Seven was established by Jackson, Harris, MacDonald, Lismer, Varley, Johnston and Carmichael. The group held its first exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto from May 7 to 27, 1920.
In 1922, Carmichael joined the Sampson-Matthews firm, a
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
business. He likely worked as head designer under the art directorship of J.E. Sampson.
In 1925, Carmichael, Harris and Jackson ventured to the northern shore of
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
. On the trip, Carmichael opted to use
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
rather than his usual
oil paints
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnis ...
. He used watercolour consistently from this point onward, painting some of his most famous works with the medium. After this initial experience, he would return several more times to the lake, including in 1926 and 1928.
This area on Lake Superior as well as the Northern shore of
Lake Huron
Lake Huron ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrology, Hydrologically, it comprises the easterly portion of Lake Michigan–Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Michigan, to which it is connected by the , Strait ...
in the La Cloche mountains would be consistent themes in his work.
According to writer Peter Mellen, the considerably young Carmichael and
A. J. Casson
Alfred Joseph Casson LL. D. (May 17, 1898 – February 20, 1992) was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Cas ...
"always remained slightly on the fringes of the Group" due to the age gap between them and the other members. Together with
F. H. Brigden, Carmichael and Casson founded the
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (in French: La Société Canadienne de Peintres en Aquarelle), founded in 1925 is considered to be Canada's official national watercolour Society. Since the 1980s the Society has enjoyed Vice-regal ...
(in French: La Société Canadienne de Peintres en Aquarelle), in 1925
Theosophy and spiritual influences
The entire group – but Carmichael in particular – strove to give visual form to spiritual value, with some members drawing on
theosophy
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
(an offshoot of
transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...
) and the
spiritualist
Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century
The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...
founder of the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
,
Helena Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, uk, Олена Петрівна Блаватська, Olena Petrivna Blavatska (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 187 ...
. Theosophy was "predicated on the centrality of intuition as an inclusive but not exclusive tool, and on an individual, emotive approach to divinity. This divinity was immanent, indwelling, permanently pervading the universe."
According to the doctrine of theosophy, a northern "spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic renaissance" was to take place in North America, with Canada playing a particularly special role because of its location. The northern emphasis provided by Theosophy appealed to the "land-based nationalism" of the Group of Seven, expressed particularly by Carmichael, Lismer and MacDonald. In 1926, Harris published an article, "Revelation of Art in Canada," that appeared in the ''Canadian Theosophist''. In it, Harris wrote,
Harris further elaborated in another article:
The Group's views were not restricted to theosophy, however, but were also influenced by the European
Symbolists,
Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...
George Russell (Æ) and transcendentalists like
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
and
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
.
Move from commercial art to teaching (1932–1945)
By 1932, he left commercial art and taught as the head of the Graphic Design and Commercial Art Department the
Ontario College of Art
Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...
until his death in 1945.
Following the Group of Seven's disbandment in 1933, Carmichael helped to found the
Canadian Group of Painters
The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933.
Formation
The Canadian Group of Painters succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wilde ...
, which several members of the Group of Seven would later join. After the split, the artistic strength of the other Group of Seven members seemed to diminish, though Carmichael has been noted (along with Harris) as persisting in his strength.
His fondness for the
La Cloche Mountains
The La Cloche Mountains, also called the La Cloche Range, are a range of mountains in Northern Ontario, Canada, along the northern shore of Lake Huron near Manitoulin Island. The mountains are located in the Canadian Shield, and are composed pr ...
of Ontario led him to build a log cabin on Cranberry Lake in 1934–1935.
Carmichael died suddenly of a heart attack while returning home from the Ontario College of Art on October 24, 1945. He is buried at St. Andrew's and St. James Cemetery in
Orillia, Ontario.
Style and works
Carmichael's artistic breakthrough came after his return to Canada in 1914, once he took up residence with Thomson in the Studio Building. In the winter of that year, he recorded outdoor sketches and produced one of his first major works, ''A Muskoka Road''. The scene depicted in the painting is that of a snowy road, illustrating his broad handling and bold brushwork.
Art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
Joan Murray wrote that "Thomson's way of painting strongly influenced Carmichael." The influence of Thomson can be seen in Carmichael's initial attempts at capturing clouds and snow; his early efforts show he did not yet understand structure and colour on the same level as Thomson.
Carmichael eventually came to favour landscape art, and many of his pieces display an effort to achieve rich colour and design. Besides a few studies in his notes, he produced only a single portrait in oil on canvas in his entire career: ''Woman in Black Hat'', a rendering of an unidentified subject from 1939.
Art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
David Silcox praised the painting, writing that it "makes one wish that
armichaelhad tackled more."
Carmichael's final painting, ''Gambit No. 1'', was painted in 1945 and was his only abstract piece.
[, quoted in ] It was his first major canvas since 1942. Art historian
Joyce Zemans
Joyce Zemans D.F.A. D.Litt. (born April 21, 1940) is a Canadian art historian, curator, cultural policy specialist and academic. She is known as the first woman to serve as York University`s Dean of Fine Arts and as director of the Canada Counc ...
thought the painting indicated Carmichael was moving in a new direction, though given the timing of the work at the end of his life it is difficult to know whether he would have continued.
Montreal artist Kristine Moran wrote favourably of the painting, understanding "Carmichael's desire to push out from under the constraints of the
Post-Impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...
landscape style for which the Group of Seven was so well known." Joan Murray was less enthused with the work, writing, "Abstraction was not Carmichael's game and this painting, so influenced by
awrenHarris, is not good."
Landscape
Famous for his watercolours, Carmichael was a passionate landscape painter. Many of his paintings depict the trees, rocks, hills, and mountains of Ontario. His earlier works had flat juxtapositions of colour, but as he matured through the 1920s he emphasized depth and three dimensional space. Early works like the 1920 painting ''Autumn Hillside'' display pictorial motifs that became common to his later work. For example, he utilizes effects of distant weather and a partially shadowed foreground. Carmichael's developing maturity is seen in perhaps his most famous work, ''The Upper Ottawa, Near Mattawa''. The painting shows an understanding of the distinct, massive geometric surfaces of rocks, and is also presented from a viewpoint that would come to characterize much of his later work, utilizing height to emphasize time and weather.
Beyond simple representation of picturesque views, Carmichael attempted to capture contrast. This is seen in his early work ''Autumn Foliage Against Grey Rock'' which compares the rocky landscape to a bright autumnal tree along with a pink and green sky.
![Franklin Carmichael - The Upper Ottawa, near Mattawa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Franklin_Carmichael_-_The_Upper_Ottawa%2C_near_Mattawa.jpg)
After Carmichael's ventures to Lake Superior in the mid-to-late 1920s,
Bertram Brooker and other friends recognized the spiritual dimensions of his work. Besides his interest theosophy, he also studied transcendentalism, owning a copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson's ''Essays and Other Writings'', amongst many other books. During this time, he made significant changes in style through bolder use of colour and an overall simplification in approach. This is evident in his 1930 watercolour, ''Snow Flurries: North Shore of Lake Superior'',
a painting
Joan Murray describes as "an almost breathtaking achievement." The work which contrasts the dark blue-green simplified hills against the clouds above. Further comparison has been drawn between this painting and Harris' work from Lake Superior.
Similarly, in the 1931 oil painting ''Bay of Islands From Mt. Burke'', he illuminates the foreground with a burst of light. From this light, patches of green, brown, gold and orange indicate the areas of the hill where vegetation lay.
From 1924 on, Carmichael painted the La Cloche Mountains, located in northern Ontario, above Lake Huron, and he expressed his admiration for the "humped contours," white
quartzite
Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
rock and long stretches of water. This is seen in ''Lake Wabagishik'', the first area he painted in the mountains in which there is no evidence of previous human presence. The painting itself depicts a storm, with rain falling on the distant hills and the wind blowing both the water and trees. In 1935, he bought five acres of land on Cranberry Lake and built a cabin there and then could paint the area at all times of day but storms and other weather phenomena remained a favourite subject of his work. One such example is ''Snow Clouds'' from 1938, which communicates a tension between the land and the snow storm approaching from the distance.
File:Franklin Carmichael - Autumn Foliage against Grey Rock 1920.jpg, ''Autumn Foliage against Grey Rock'', 1920, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Lake Wabagishik.jpg, ''Lake Wabagishik'', 1928, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
File:Franklin Carmichael - Snow Flurries, North Shore of Lake Superior 1930.jpg, ''Snow Flurries, North Shore of Lake Superior'', 1930, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Bay of Islands from Mt. Burke.jpg, ''Bay of Islands from Mt. Burke'', 1931, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
File:Franklin Carmichael - Snow Clouds.jpg, ''Snow Clouds'', 1938, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Industry and the environment
![Franklin H Carmichael](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Franklin_H_Carmichael.jpg)
By the 1930s, Carmichael's work explored themes of industry in
northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Provi ...
, particularly the mining regions.
His first depiction of an industrial building is ''Old Lime Kilns, Rockwood'', a sketch made on a 1927 trip with Casson to
Rockwood, Ontario.
The 1928 canvas, ''The Nickel Belt'', depicts smoke billowing away into the clouds and a barren rocky foreground. The work juxtaposes bare nature with the ugly environmental effects caused by industry, depicting the wilderness present in his earlier canvases, but also "the billowing extrusion of smoke waste." Art historian Rosemary Donegan writes of the work, "The dramatic beauty of the burnt blue-green rolling hills, seen from a bird's-eye perspective, is subverted by the distant smoke plumes and smelter stacks, which raise questions about the effect of ore smelting on the local landscape." Donegan further compares the work to A.Y. Jackson's 1932 depiction of the
Falconbridge Falconbridge may refer to:
*Falconbridge Ltd., a Canadian mining company
*Falconbridge, Middlesex County, Ontario
*Falconbridge, Greater Sudbury, Ontario
People:
*Lord Falconbridge, an alternative title for barons, viscounts, and earls of Fauconbe ...
smelter near Sudbury, ''Smoke Fantasy'', though she found Carmichael better imbued his painting with power and meaning than Jackson did his. Jackson took his government lobbying efforts further however, pleading in a letter to the
minister of Lands and Forests William Finlayson to preserve what became
Killarney Provincial Park
Killarney Provincial Park is a provincial park in central Ontario, Canada.
The park contains just one campground at the George Lake entrance as it is primarily a wilderness park. There are few facilities to allow visitors a chance to experience ...
and
Trout Lake. The latter was renamed O.S.A. Lake in honour of the
Ontario Society of Artists
The Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) was founded in 1872. It is Canada's oldest continuously operating professional art society. When it was founded at the home of John Arthur Fraser, seven artists were present. Besides Fraser himself, Marmaduke M ...
.
The 1930 canvas ''A Northern Silver Mine'' is a composite of several sketches and watercolours following an August 1930 trip to the mining town of
Cobalt, Ontario
Cobalt is a town in Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada. It had a population of 1,118 at the 2016 Census.
In the early 1900s, the area was heavily mined for silver; the silver ore also contained cobalt. By 1910, the community was the fourth h ...
. This painting depicts the relationship of industrial town and nature, where "
e houses and mines seem scattered and fragile against the agitated convolutions of the hills." The mine in the foreground and polluted river "
llustratethe bleakness of the land around the smelters and mines during the 1930s."
File:Franklin Carmichael - A Northern Silver Mine.jpg, ''A Northern Silver Mine'', 1930, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
File:Franklin Carmichael - West River 0.jpg, ''West River'', 1930, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - untitled 1930.jpg, Untitled, 1930, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
File:Franklin Carmichael - Untitled (Industrial Building).jpg, Untitled (Industrial Building), 1934–37, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Design, printmaking and illustration
![Franklin Carmichael - Old Orchard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Franklin_Carmichael_-_Old_Orchard.jpg)
Like the other members of the Group, Carmichael drew constantly in pencil and ink. He also produced many
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
s,
linocut
Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...
s and
wood engraving
Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...
s over his lifetime, and was an expert at
woodblock and
linoleum prints, having become familiar with printing methods from his work in
commercial art
Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...
. In commercial art, the other members of the Group of Seven typically restricted themselves to
illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
work; Carmichael, however, took an active role in book design. In one case, he produced the wood engravings, selected the paper, directed the
typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...
and did the complete design for Grace Campbell's 1942 book, ''Thorn-Apple Tree''. He worked on book illustrations for Canadian publishers from 1942 until the end of his life.
While working at Sampson-Matthews in the 1920s, his other illustration work saw him designing promotional brochures as well as advertisements for newspapers and magazines. As was typical for the time, his design style was flat and simplified.
He also produced illustrations for magazines, including the cover of a 1928 issue of
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
magazine.
In Carmichael's early design career, he found the need to avoid meaningless ornamentation, writing
File:Franklin Carmichael advertisement.jpg, Advertisement, ''By the sea, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island'', 1925, Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...
, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Pencilled Irises.jpg, ''Pencilled Irises'', 1925–1932, colour linocut on laid paper, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Church, Burks Falls (second version).jpg, ''Church, Burks Falls (second version)'', , wood engraving on calendered wove paper, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Wood Engraving.jpg, Untitled, 1944, wood engraving on paper, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
Legacy
Contemporary
Emily Carr
Emily Carr (or M. Emily Carr as she sometimes signed her work) (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist and writer who was inspired by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the painters in Canada to ado ...
wrote that Carmichael's work was, "A little pretty and too soft, but pleasant."
Carmichael was a member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
History 1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...
(RCA) and awarded the RCA Medal in 1969.
In 1952, Dr. Ann Curtin and Carmichael's widow founded the Franklin Carmichael Art Group, located at 34 Riverdale Drive in Toronto.
In 1990, Carmichael's granddaughter,
Catharine Mastin, and curator Megan Bice held an exhibition of Carmichael's work at the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection (MCAC) is an art museum in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located on a property in Kleinburg, an unincorporated village in Vaughan. The property includes the museum's main building, a sculpture garde ...
. In a review of the exhibition,
Joan Murray was disappointed in the organizers focus on Carmichael's oil works, which she saw as "overworked and overfinished", rather than his "sublime" watercolours.
Catharine Mastin has since been a curator at the
Glenbow Museum
The Glenbow Museum is an art and history regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was established as a private non-profi ...
in
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
and directed the
Art Gallery of Windsor
Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) (formerly known as the Art Gallery of Windsor) is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local ...
and written about her grandfather's art.
The 1929 watercolour ''Lone Lake'' was considered to be the highlight of a major sale of Canadian art in May 2012 at Joyner Waddington's spring art auction in Toronto, ON, selling for
CAD
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...
$330,400.
The subject of the painting is a small lake called Carmichael Lake in the La Cloche Mountains of
Killarney Provincial Park
Killarney Provincial Park is a provincial park in central Ontario, Canada.
The park contains just one campground at the George Lake entrance as it is primarily a wilderness park. There are few facilities to allow visitors a chance to experience ...
near
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...
, Ontario.
Selected paintings
File:Franklin Carmichael - Study for Sumacs 1915.jpg, ''Study for Sumacs'', oil on wood, 1915, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael Hillside 1917-20.jpg, ''Hillside'', oil on wood, 1917–20, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Franklin Carmichael - Autumn Hillside - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Autumn Hillside'', oil on canvas, 1920, Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...
, Toronto
File:Spring - Franklin Carmichael.jpg, ''Spring'', oil on canvas, 1920, private collection
Franklin Carmichael - Silvery Tangle - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Silvery Tangle'', oil on canvas, 1921, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
File:Franklin Carmichael - Autumn.jpg, ''Autumn'', oil on paperboard, 1921, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - The Glade.jpg, ''The Glade'', oil on canvas, 1922, unknown
File:Franklin Carmichael - October Gold.jpg, ''October Gold'', oil on canvas, 1922, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Untitled (Pines, Lake Superior) 1925.jpg, Untitled (Pines, Lake Superior), 1925, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - The Whitefish Hills.jpg, ''The Whitefish Hills'', watercolour over graphite on wove paper, 1929, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Wabajisik Drowned Land.jpg, ''Wabajisik Drowned Land'', watercolour and gouache over charcoal on wove paper, 1929, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Lone Lake.jpg, ''Lone Lake'', watercolor, 1929, private collection
File:Franklin Carmichael - Bay of Islands.png, ''Bay of Islands'', watercolour on paper, 1930, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
File:Franklin Carmichael - Grace Lake (1931).jpg, ''Grace Lake'', oil on paperboard, 1931, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
File:Franklin Carmichael - Light and Shadow.jpg, ''Light and Shadow'', oil on hardboard, 1937, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
File:Franklin Carmichael - Farm, Haliburton.jpg, ''Farm, Haliburton'', oil on hardboard, 1940, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmichael, Franklin
20th-century Canadian painters
Canadian male painters
Canadian landscape painters
Artists from Ontario
People from Orillia
1890 births
1945 deaths
OCAD University alumni
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
OCAD University faculty
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni
20th-century Canadian male artists
Canadian watercolourists