Group of Seven

Group of Seven

The Group of Seven, Canada's most famous group of landscape painters, was officially founded in 1920. The seven artists who formed the group were Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank (later Franz) Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, and F.H. Varley; most of them had worked together as commercial artists at the Toronto firm of Grip Ltd. Tom Thomson greatly influenced these painters, but he died accidentally in 1917, three years before their first exhibition. As a group, these painters wanted to capture the spirit of Canada in art. By working and exhibiting together, they hoped to win public acceptance for their ideas.

They organized sketching trips to Algonquin Park and the Algoma wilderness in northern Ontario. There they climbed mountains, travelled on foot and by canoe, and painted nature in every season and mood. In the 1920s some of them travelled to the Prairies, the Rockies, the east and west coasts, and the Arctic. They painted hundreds of quick oil sketches on panels, which they carried in their backpacks. During the winter months in their studios, they reworked many of these sketches into large canvasses.

In both style and subject matter, they were influenced at first by some Scandinavian painters whose works had been exhibited in Buffalo in 1913. By the early 1920s, members of the group were developing their own unique styles and moving apart. Varley went to Vancouver and became better known as a portrait painter. Harris's landscapes became increasingly stylized, and by the 1930s he was painting only geometrical abstract works. Lismer and MacDonald became art teachers.

In 1926 Johnston left the group; he was replaced by A.J. Casson. Edwin Holgate and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald were also members of the group for brief periods, though in style their art was unlike the paintings of the original seven. The group held its last show in 1931; it disbanded in 1933.

The Group of Seven painters made a tremendous impact on Canadian art. They broke with the traditional painting style popular in Canada at the time, in which the sombre landscapes looked more like the museum paintings of Europe than the Canadian wilderness. They founded a style of painting that they believed was more appropriate to Canada. At first, some critics reviled them as the "Hot Mush School," because of their free use of bright colours. However, their art was soon accepted in the new spirit of independence and confidence felt by Canadians after World War I. They were supported by the National Gallery and by important public and private collectors.

By 1930 the Group of Seven had become so established that it was as difficult for young artists to be accepted as it once had been for the group. Today, there are paintings by the Group of Seven in every major gallery in Canada. They have become part of the way Canadians see their country.

Suggested Reading Joan Murray The Best of the Group of Seven (1984).