The Group Of Seven

There is a considerable portion of the Gallery's Canadian space given over to Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. These artists organized after the First World War, expressing their view of Canada often through views of nature, exhibiting together. You can learn more about them here. The original members of the Group, Lawren Harris, Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. Macdonald, Franz Johnston, and F.H. Varley, are all represented here in the Gallery, and are incredibly influential to Canadian art in the 20th century. Their numbers would have been eight; Thomson, their fellow artist and friend, who inspired them in terms of exposing them to the great outdoors, died in 1917 in a drowning incident in Algonquin Park, and because of that connection, he is often grouped with the Seven. Here are a number of their small canvases- the artists would paint these in the field before returning home to their studios to transfer their ideas to larger canvases.

This is Jackson's The Red Maple, which was based along a stretch of the Oxtongue River in Algonquin Park.

The Drive is a work by Lawren Harris, who has been in the news recently- the actor and comedian Steve Martin, who has a couple of Harris paintings- curated a special exhibition on the artist in Los Angeles.

Another Jackson, this one is entitled Frozen Lake, Early Spring, Algonquin Park.

And this one is by Thomson, entitled Pine Island, Georgian Bay.

This last painting is by Emily Carr, entitled Indian Hut, Queen Charlotte Islands. Carr, another highly influential artist of Canada's 20th century, was associated with the Group of Seven, and her own work takes a modernist and post-impressionist style. The First Nations of the Pacific Coast were a regular subject for her art, and you can learn more about her here.