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The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, originally consisting of
Franklin Carmichael Franklin Carmichael (May 4, 1890 – October 24, 1945) was a Canadian artist and member of the Group of Seven. Though he was primarily famous for his use of watercolours, he also used oil paints, charcoal and other media to capture the Ontari ...
(1890–1945),
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. ...
(1885–1970), A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885–1969), J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), and
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 ...
(1881–1969). Later, A. J. Casson (1898–1992) was invited to join in 1926,
Edwin Holgate Edwin Headley Holgate (August 19, 1892 – May 21, 1977), was a Canadian artist, painter, muralist, and wood-cut artist. Holgate played a major role in Montreal's art community, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he both studied and t ...
(1892–1977) became a member in 1930, and LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) joined in 1932. Two artists commonly associated with the group are
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 ...
(1877–1917) and
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 Canadian art, painters in ...
(1871–1945). Although he died before its official formation, Thomson had a significant influence on the group. In his essay "The Story of the Group of Seven", Harris wrote that Thomson was "a part of the movement before we pinned a label on it"; Thomson's paintings '' The West Wind'' and '' The Jack Pine'' are two of the group's most iconic pieces. Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature, the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement. The Group was succeeded by 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 ...
in 1933, which included members from the Beaver Hall Group who had a history of showing with the Group of Seven internationally.


Collections

Large collections of work from the Group of Seven are located at the
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 Bev ...
in Toronto, the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
in Ottawa as well as the Ottawa Art Gallery (home to The
Firestone Collection of Canadian Art The Firestone Collection of Canadian Art is a collection of over 1600 works of twentieth-century Canadian art amassed by Ottawa residents O.J. and Isobel Firestone beginning in the 1950s. It is now a public collection owned by the City of Ottawa, an ...
) and 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 gard ...
in
Kleinburg, Ontario Kleinburg is an unincorporated village in the city of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, an art gallery with a focus on the Group of Seven, and the Kortright Centre for Conservation. In 2001, the villa ...
. The National Gallery, under the directorship of Eric Brown, was an early institutional supporter of artists associated with the Group, purchasing art from some of their early exhibitions before they had identified themselves officially as the Group of Seven. The Art Gallery of Ontario, in its earlier incarnation as the Art Gallery of Toronto, was the site of their first exhibition as the Group of Seven in 1920. 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 gard ...
was founded by Robert and Signe McMichael, who began collecting paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries in 1955.


History

Tom Thomson, J. E. H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael met as employees of the
design firm A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
Grip Ltd. in Toronto. In 1913, they were joined by A. Y. (Alexander Young) Jackson and Lawren Harris. They often met at
the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto (usually just called ''The Arts and Letters Club'') is a private club in Toronto, Ontario, which brings together writers, architects, musicians, painters, graphic artists, actors and others working in or with ...
to discuss their opinions and share their art. This group received monetary support from Harris (heir to the Massey-Harris farm machinery fortune) and Dr.
James MacCallum James Metcalfe MacCallum (1860–1943) was a Canadian ophthalmologist and one of the most important patrons of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Biography He was born in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto, but due to his father, a Methodist ...
. Harris and MacCallum jointly built the Studio Building in 1914 in the Rosedale ravine to serve as a meeting and working place for the new Canadian art movement. MacCallum owned an island on
Georgian Bay Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To i ...
and Thomson worked as a guide in nearby
Algonquin Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canad ...
, both places where he and the other artists often travelled for inspiration. The informal group was temporarily split up during World War I, during which JacksonBrandon, Laura. (2008). and VarleyDavis, Ann. (1992). became official war artists. Jackson enlisted in June 1915 and served in France from November 1915 to 1917, at which point he was seriously injured. Harris enlisted in 1916 and taught
musketry A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...
at
Camp Borden Canadian Forces Base Borden (also CFB Borden, French: Base des Forces canadiennes Borden or BFC Borden), formerly RCAF Station Borden, is a large Canadian Forces base located in Ontario. The historic birthplace of the Royal Canadian Air Force, C ...
. He was discharged in May 1918 after suffering a nervous breakdown. Carmichael, MacDonald, Thomson, Varley and Johnston remained in Toronto and struggled in the depressed wartime economy. A further blow to the group came in 1917 when Thomson died mysteriously while canoeing in Algonquin Park. The circumstances of his death remain unclear. The seven who formed the original group reunited after the war. They continued to travel throughout
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 ...
, especially the Muskoka and Algoma regions, sketching the landscape and developing techniques to represent it in art. In 1919, they decided to make themselves into a group devoted to a distinct Canadian form of art which did not exist yet, and began to call themselves the Group of Seven. It is unknown who specifically chose these seven men, but it is believed to have been Harris or Harris in combination with MacDonald. By 1920, they were ready for their first exhibition thanks to the constant support and encouragement of Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery at that time. Reviews for the 1920 exhibition were mixed, but as the decade progressed the Group came to be recognized as pioneers of a new, Canadian,
school of art An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-second ...
. After Frank Johnston moved to Winnipeg in the fall of 1921, Percy James Robinson is claimed to have been invited to fill the open spot. Robinson participated in the group's 3rd exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 1926, A. J. Casson was invited to join. Franklin Carmichael had taken a liking to him and had encouraged Casson to sketch and paint for many years. The Group's champions during its early years included Barker Fairley, a co-founder of ''Canadian Forum magazine'', and the warden of Hart House at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, J. Burgon Bickersteth. The members of the Group began to travel elsewhere in Canada for inspiration, including British Columbia,
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen ...
,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Engl ...
, and the
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
. After Samuel Gurney Cresswell and other painters on Royal Navy expeditions, these were the first artists of European descent who depicted the Arctic. Soon, the Group made the decision that to be called a "national school of painters" there should be members from outside Toronto. As a result, in 1930
Edwin Holgate Edwin Headley Holgate (August 19, 1892 – May 21, 1977), was a Canadian artist, painter, muralist, and wood-cut artist. Holgate played a major role in Montreal's art community, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he both studied and t ...
from Montreal, Quebec became a member, followed by LeMoine FitzGerald from Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1932. The Group's influence was so widespread by the end of 1931, and after J. E. H. MacDonald's death in 1932, they no longer found it necessary to continue as a group of painters. They announced that the Group had been disbanded and that a new association of painters would be formed, known as the Canadian Group of Painters. The Canadian Group—which eventually consisted of the majority of Canada's leading artists—held its first exhibition in 1933, and continued to hold exhibitions almost every year as a successful society until 1967.


Legacy

The Group of Seven has received criticism for its reinforcement of
terra nullius ''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land". It was a principle sometimes used in international law to justify claims that territory may be acquired by a state's occupation of it. : : ...
presenting the region as pristine and untouched by humans when in fact the areas depicted have been lived in for many centuries. This sentiment was expressed by Jackson, who in his 1958 autobiography wrote, In 1966, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario incorporated 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 gard ...
, an art gallery with an institutional focus on the Group of Seven, along with "their contemporaries and on the aboriginal peoples of Canada". In addition to housing a collection of works by the Group of Seven, the museum property also contains the burial ground for six members of the group, including A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, and A.J. Casson; along with four of the artists' wives. The McMichael cemetery is situated in the small patch of consecrated land bordered by trees, with graves marked by large chunks of the
Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...
. The idea to use the property as a burial ground for the group was first proposed to the institution by Jackson in 1968. In 1995, the
National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...
compiled a Group of Seven retrospective show, for which they commissioned the Canadian rock band
Rheostatics Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, and actively performed from 1980 until disbanding in 2007. After a number of reunion performances at special events, Rheostatics reformed in late 2016, introducing new songs a ...
to write a musical score. That score was released on album as '' Music Inspired by the Group of Seven''. When the
Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fran ...
hosted the major travelling exhibition ''The Group of Seven: Art for a Nation'' in 1996, Vancouver-based Korean Canadian artist Jin-me Yoon intervened with a work of socially engaged art entitled ''A Group of Sixty-Seven'' (1996). She invited sixty-seven members of the Korean Canadian community—in reference to 1967, the year restrictions on Asian immigration to Canada were lifted—to have their picture taken. Yoon photographed each participant in front of famous landscapes by Group of Seven member Lawren S. Harris and West Coast artist
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 Canadian art, painters in ...
, creating a collective portrait that addresses art history’s colonial perspectives and asserts diasporic presence in Canada. Around 2001, Cree artist
Kent Monkman Kent Monkman (born 13 November 1965) is a Canadian First Nations artist of Cree ancestry. He is a member of the Fisher River band situated in Manitoba's Interlake Region. He is both a visual as well as performance artist, working in a variety ...
began recreating a series of paintings by
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 Group of Seven artists such as Lawren S. Harris, including Thomson’s ''The Jack Pine'' (1916–17) and Harris’s ''North Shore, Lake Superior'' (1926). To counter the absence of Indigenous people in these representations of the Canadian landscape, Monkman inserted couplings between submissive cowboys and dominant “Indians” into the appropriated paintings, then overlaid the images with violent and racist texts borrowed from pulp Western novels and explicit narratives from gay erotic fiction. His intention was to use sexual power dynamics as a means of exploring larger issues of Christianity and colonization. In 2004, Monkman held a filmed performance entitled ''Group of Seven Inches'' 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 gard ...
, Kleinburg. Contemporary painter Rae Johnson was inspired by
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 the Group of Seven in the themes of some of her works and her choice of painting place, as were many other artists. Shows of Group of Seven members or single paintings in some combination are a perennial favorite of the Canadian exhibition world, particularly of the National Gallery of Canada. The Group still receives criticism, usually for what it left out of the narrative. In 2016, for instance, a publication criticized it for its paintings of empty landscapes which helped to forge a fictitious national identity that celebrated the land as open for ownership and extraction. This concept was explored by Canadian artist Will Kwan in his show, ''Terra Economicus'', of 2021, held at the
Robert McLaughlin Gallery The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham, of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian conte ...
, Oshawa. Other omissions are noted. But usually the Group is simply regarded as part of Canadian art history and explored in depth, as, for instance, for the centenary, the Kelowna Art Gallery in 2020 organized ''Northern Pine: Watercolours and Drawings by the Group of Seven from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection'' curated by Ian M. Thom. For the centenary as well, the National Gallery's Philip Dombowsky of the Library and Archives at the Gallery organized a show titled ''Group of Seven: Graphic Design''. ''Magnetic North: Imagining Canada in Painting, 1910-1940'', a show celebrating the Group of Seven and Emily Carr, among others, and shown in Frankfurt, was organized by the
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt The Schirn Kunsthalle is a Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, located in the old city between the Römer and the Frankfurt Cathedral. The Schirn exhibits both modern and contemporary art. It is the main venue for temporary art exhibitions in F ...
in combination with the National Gallery of Canada and
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 Bev ...
in 2021 and the catalogue while acknowledging the 'bold composition, expressive brushwork, and powerful colour' of the extended Group of Seven also highlit the colonial attitude inscribed in their painting, their "mythical ideology of Canadian history and denial of responsibility for the exploitation of indigenous lands by expanding industrialism".


Recognition

On September 18, 1970, Canada Post issued 'The Group of Seven', designed by Allan Robb Fleming and based on a painting, "Isles of Spruce" (1922), by Arthur Lismer and held in the Hart House Permanent Collection, University of Toronto. The 6¢ stamps are perforated 11, and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited. On June 29, 1995, Canada Post issued 10 stamps, each based on a painting of a member of the group (7 original members and 3 additional members): * Francis Hans Johnston, ''Serenity, Lake of the Woods'' * Arthur Lismer, ''A September Gale, Georgian Bay'' * James Edward Hervey MacDonald, ''Falls, Montreal River'' * Frederick Horsman Varley, ''Open Window'' * Franklin Carmichael, ''October Gold'' * Lawren Stewart Harris, ''North of Lake Superior'' * Alexander Young Jackson, ''Evening, Les Éboulements'' * Alfred Joseph Casson, ''Mill Houses'' * Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, ''Pembina Valley'' * Edwin Headley Holgate, ''The Lumberjack'' On May 7, 2020, Canada Post honoured the centennial of the Group's first exhibition, at the Art Gallery of Toronto (May 7, 1920), by issuing seven stamps, featuring paintings by each of the original members. The stamps were produced in a booklet of seven self-adhesives, and on a souvenir sheet of seven gummed stamps. First day ceremonies were cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so designs were unveiled online on May 6, via the social media accounts of the postal service and several galleries across the country which own the works featured on the stamps: * ''In the Nickel Belt'' (1928), by Franklin Carmichael * ''Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay'' (circa 1925), by Lawren S. Harris * ''Labrador Coast'' (1930), by A.Y. Jackson * ''Fire-swept, Algoma'' (1920), by Frank H. Johnston * ''Quebec Village'' (1926), by Arthur Lismer * ''Church by the Sea'' (1924), by J.E.H. MacDonald * ''Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay'' (1921), by F.H. Varley In 2012–2013, the Royal Canadian Mint issued seven pure silver one-ounce coins, collectively reproducing one painting by each original member: * F.H. Varley ''Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay'' (April 2012) * Arthur Lismer ''Nova Scotia Fishing Village'' (July 2012) * Franklin Carmichael ''Houses, Cobalt'' (October 2012) * Lawren S. Harris ''Toronto Street, Winter Morning'' (January 2013) * Franz Johnston ''The Guardian of the Gorge'' (March 2013) * J.E.H. MacDonald ''Sumacs'' (June 2013) * A.Y. Jackson ''Saint-Tite-des-Caps'' (September 2013)


See also

* Indian Group of Seven (Canadian First Nations Artists) * Metcalf Chateau (Japanese-American Artists)


References


Footnotes


References


Further reading

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External links


CBC Digital Archives – The Group of Seven: Painters in the WildernessThe Canadian Encyclopedia, The Group of SevenGroup of Seven Gallery – McMichael Gallery
{{Portal bar, Arts, Canada Canadian artist groups and collectives History of art in Canada 1920 establishments in Canada