The Group of Seven paintings, the original artwork of a cluster of Canadian landscape painters working between 1920 and 1933, are to Canada what the modernists are to Europe and America. These artists managed to bring European experimentation to Canada at a time when it was not exactly appreciated. They also heralded what was the first official art movement of Canada. Today the works are highly prized.
The seven artists were Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, Franz Johnston, Lawren Harris, Frederick Varley and Tom Thomson. One woman, Emily Carr, was loosely affiliated, though not an official member. Thomson was not an official member either, but was the original inspiration for the group.
In the year 1920, the first exhibition was held in the National Gallery of Ontario. It was met with mixed reactions, the criticism stemming from the view that the bleak Canadian landscape was unworthy as a subject matter. Today this seems reactionary: they painted the cold landscape boldly with animation and warmth.
Beginning with Impressionism, they soon abandoned the nineteenth-century techniques in favor of modern styles such as expressionism, Art Nouveau, symbolism and even futurism. They eschewed exact realism and ventured into the world of self-expression, whimsy and abstraction. As in Europe and the United States, as well as Mexico, the individual temperament came to dominate canvases.
Working in thick impasto, using vivid colours with a bold drawing style, the works became more experimental as time passed. Some of the members worked toward a simplified, monochromatic palate. Harris eventually found his way toward abstraction but the others continued with representational motifs. They made use of various techniques; they were not in any sense carbon copies of each other.
The seven artists all worked as commercial illustrators in Toronto. Art Nouveau was the popular style at the time used in commercial illustration. It was carried over into their fine art and many of their works show a strong link to this movement but not exclusively.
They had their last group showing in 1931. With official recognition, they were free to pursue their own careers without need of affiliation. But a new group formed immediately calling themselves The Canadian Group of Painters, embracing some of the old members and allowing women.
Today, the works are exhibited in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Ontario. Robert and Signe McMichael began collecting the paintings in 1955. The paintings were purchased directly from the artists. The McMichael Canadian Art Collection houses more than six thousand of their works and six of the artists and their wives are buried in a graveyard on the site of the gallery.
The National Gallery of Canada held a retrospective in 1995 that was a resounding success. The rock band Rheostatics wrote a musical based on the lives of the seven. The Group of Seven Paintings are sold as prints and continue to find fans with each new generation of Canadian artists. The originals are highly coveted with rising prices. What started without fanfare or appreciation has become the stuff of legend and a fine chapter in the history of Canadian art.
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Mayberry Fine Art' team of highly trained conservators have many years of experience and are able to skillfully remedy the more complicated William Kurelek issues of restoration art such as the Group or Seven paintings.
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