Introducing Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.
In October our fine art imprint, Philip Wilson, published Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, which accompanied the Painting Canada exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The exhibition centred around Canadian artist Tom Thomson, who in the early twentieth century developed an artistic language that captured the unique qualities of the Canadian landscape – a landscape previously considered too wild and untamed to inspire ‘true’ art – dazzling in colour and in tune with the subtle changing of the seasons. After his untimely death, Thomson’s friends organised a memorial exhibition, and followed this up by forming probably the most famous artistic force in Canadian art history (the Group of Seven) which comprised of: Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, Franklin Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson.
Below is an assortment of paintings that were on show in the exhibition, and are featured in the book.
Click a thumbnail to begin the slideshow.
Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine, 1916, Oil on Canvas, 127.9 x 139.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, Burnt Land, 1915, oil on canvas, 54.6 x 66.7 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, Maple Woods, Bare Trunks, 1915, oil on wood, 21.3 x 26.6 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, Moonlight and Birches, 1915, oil on wood panel, 22 x 26.9 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Tom Thomson, Tamarack, Autumn 1915, oil on wood, 21.5 x 26.2 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, Smoke Lake, 1915, oil on wood panel, 21.5 x 26.9 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Tom Thomson, Nocturne, The Birches, Spring 1916, oil on composite wood pulp board, 21.6 x 26.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, March, 1916, oil on wood, 26.9 x 21.4 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Tom Thomson, Ragged Oaks, 1916, oil on panel, 21.5 x 26.7 cm, Private Collection.
Tom Thomson, Purple Hill, 1916, oil on wood panel, 21.6 x 26.7 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
A.Y. Jackson, Night, Pine Island, oil on canvas, 64.2 x 81.5 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
A.Y. Jackson, First Snow, Algoma, c.1919-1920, Oil on canvas, 107.1 x 127.7 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
A.Y. Jackson, Winter, Quebec, 1926, Oil on canvas, 53.8 x 66.5 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
A.Y. Jackson, A Quebec Farm, c. 1930, Oil on canvas, 82 x 102.3 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
A.Y. Jackson, Totem Poles, Kitwanga, 1926, Oil on panel, 21.3 x 26.3 cm, Collection: A.K. Prakash.
Arthur Lismer, Evening Silhouette, c. 1926, Oil on board, 32.6 x 48.7, McMichael Canadian Art Collection
Arthur Lismer, A September Gale, Georgian Bay, 1921, Oil on panel, 27.8 x 40.7 cm, Private collection.
Frederick Horsman Varley, Coast Mountain Form, c. 1929, Oil on plywood, 30.2 x 37.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Frederick Horsman Varley, The Cloud, Red Mountain, 1927-28, Oil on canvas, 87 x 102.2 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Frederick Horsman Varley, West Coast Sunset, Vancouver, c. 1926, Oil on wood, 30.4 x 38.1 cm, The Thomson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Franklin Carmicheal, Autumn Foliage, Against Grey Rock, c. 1920, oil on woodpulp board, 25.2 30.5 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Franklin Carmichael, October Gold, 1922, Oil on canvas, 119.5 x 98 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Franklin Carmichael, Grace Lake, 1931, Oil on paperboard, 25.4 x 30.4cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Franklin Carmichael, A Grey Day, 1928, Oil on beaverboard, 25.5 x 30.2 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
Lawren Harris, Tamaracks and Blue Hill, Oil on panel, c. 1919, 26.7 x 34.7, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Lawren Harris, Icebergs, Davis Strait, 1930, Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Lawren Harris, Lake Superior Island, c. 1923, Oil on canvas, 74.2 x 89 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Lawren Harris, Lake Superior Island, c. 1923, Oil on canvas, 74.2 x 89 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
Frank Johnston, Serenity, Lake of the Woods, 1922, Oil on canvas, 102.3 x 128.4 cm, Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
J.E.H. Macdonald, Autumn Leaves, Batchewana Wood, Algoma, c. 1919, Oil on composite wood board, 21.6 x 26.7 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
J.E.H. Macdonald, Algoma Hills, 1920, Oil on paperboard, 21.4 x 26.4 cm, McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
J.E.H. Macdonald, Mist Fantasy, Sand River, Algoma, Oil on cardboard, 21.4 x 26.6, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
J.E.H. Macdonald, Sketch for October Shower Gleam, c. 1922, Oil on paperboard, 21.6 x 26.7 cm, The Thomson Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
In addition to over 120 colour reproductions of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven’s work, Painting Canada includes essays by Anna Hudson, Katerina Atanassova, Nils Ohlsen and Marietta Jansen that offer a fresh, European perspective on these Canadian artists and how their work links and communicates to Scandinavian and European expressionism. The book also features Wyndham Lewis’ essay ‘Canadian Nature and its Painters’, which first appeared in The Listener, 1946.
