Canadian Landscape: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson

Rob Cowley

TOM THOMSON, VIEW FROM A HEIGHT, ALGONQUIN PARK

On a sunny day in the late 1930s or early 1940s, Isabelle Dunbar entered Laing Galleries on Yonge Street in Toronto with her young nephew, George. Ms. Dunbar had brought the boy to the historic gallery that day to allow him to pick a work of art for his own. That morning, George Garland chose a small oil painting by Tom Thomson. The colourful landscape, smaller than a sheet of notebook paper, caught the young boy's eye and his aunt paid the thirty-dollar price tag to begin her young nephew's art collection.

Eighty years later, the same painting, Thomson's View From A Height, Algonquin Park, Fall 1916, sat on the auction block at Joyner Canadian Fine Art's Spring 2008 Auction of Important Canadian Art. The painting had garnered immense attention in the days leading up to the May evening auction, examined with great interest by Canada's most renowned collectors and art dealers, not to mention scores of private collectors dreaming to either begin or supplement their collections with a landmark work by one of Canada's most sought-after artists.

However the viewings had been only the preamble, the slow warm of anticipation towards the full boil of breathless bidding for the small panel. The standing-room only auction gallery sat in silence as the bidding opened at five-hundred thousand dollars. Slowly the auctioneer passed the six-hundred thousand dollar mark, then seven-hundred thousand, then eight-hundred thousand. A murmer could be heard as the small Algonquin Park scene passed the one million dollar mark. Moments later the hammer fell to thunderous applause. The painting which a boy had chosen for thirty dollars had become the prize of a new owner, for just over $1.2 million.

Prices at auction for Canadian Art have been on a strong ascent for more than a decade. Every six months, the national media reports on another bidding war resulting in a new record for a Canadian artist. While this steady growth in the auction market has now resulted in the majority of schools and periods of Canadian Art benefiting from higher prices, monumental prices and the smashing of records began with one group of painters.

Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven have been at the forefront of the surge in values in Canadian Art at Auction since far before the beginning of the current escalation in prices. In the more than four decades of Canadian art auctions, the Group and Thomson have regularly experienced results beyond their pre-sale auction estimates.

The strong prices for Tom Thomson and the ten members of the Group of Seven (seven original painters: Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley; with three subsequent members: A.J. Casson, L.L. Fitzgerald and Edwin Holgate) are a clear indication of not only the appreciation of the individual works of the artists, but additionally what the artists represented as a group.

The Group of Seven's goal was to not only portray Canada in their paintings, but also to present this view of the country in regular exhibitions across Canada and internationally (in the United States and Europe). The Group exhibited regularly for thirteen years beginning in 1920 (with their final exhibition taking place in 1933) and presented our land with vibrancy, documenting the simplicity and energy of the country's greatly varying landscape. Lawren Harris, widely accepted as the Group's leader, described the Group of Seven more as a movement than an organization, which aimed to capture "Canada and her spirit" with a form of landscape painting which was a startling clash to the European school of landscape art which had occupied the walls of Canadian institutions and galleries since before confederation.

EDWIN HOLGATE, LAKE REFLECTIONS, MT. TREMBLANT

The subject of the works of Thomson and the Group are the interpretations of artists for whom the Canadian wilderness held not only an admiration, but also an affinity. Harris himself described their work as 'landscapes created by those who knew and loved the land with great appreciation and enthusiasm'. The artists travelled to and surrounded themselves with the very land which they sought to capture, creating small interpretations of the land and its very soul on wood panels. The artists would surely be astonished to now witness auction prices in some cases above the million dollar mark for these minute sketches, not to mention the even higher results for the canvases which would be created based on a selection of the panels.

While this article could present a detailed written history of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, we turn now to describe one work by each of these iconic painters, allowing the works of art themselves to represent not only the artists but also our landscape.

Lionel Lemoine Fitzgerald became a member of the Group of Seven in 1932, shortly before the artists ceased to be known as the Group. The artist was born in Winnipeg, the only prairie-based member of the Group, and created not only pointillist still lifes, but also impressionistic and natural prairie landscapes. His 1929 oil on canvas, Prairies, displays the endless horizon of the west under a blue sky dominated by mighty clouds.

Edwin Holgate was invited to join the other members in 1931. The Montreal-based artist had tremendous skill as an engraver, was a war artist overseas during the Second World War and was primarily known as a portrait artist; however, his Canadian landscapes continue to be hungrily hunted by collectors of Canadian Art at auction. Holgate's Lake Reflections, Mt. Tremblant, a 24 inch by 24 inch canvas which was featured on the auction catalogue cover of Joyner Canadian Fine Art's Fall, 1999 sale realized $70,700, almost three times its auction estimate and showed evidence of the early growth within the Canadian Art auction market.

A.Y. JACKSON, QUEBEC VILLAGE, WINTER

A.Y. Jackson was an original member of the Group of Seven and, with A.J. Casson, arguably produced more work in his lifetime than any of the other members (this is helped by the fact that Jackson lived to be ninety-two years old and painted well into the autumn of his life). It is a testament to the artist's skill and popularity that despite the number of his paintings in existence, his works regularly continue to fetch prices beyond expectation. Quebec Village, Winter, a small oil on panel, presents a subject which is considered to be one of the most important facets of his work. Jackson established a regular routine of sketching during the late winter or early spring in Quebec, with the best of the works which he produced being comparable to a scene normally reserved for a Christmas card. Collectors recognize the strength in such works, with Quebec Village, Winter fetching $138,000, more than four times its auction estimate of $30,000-40,000 in May of this year.

J.E.H MacDonald was born in England, another of the Group's original members. MacDonald began working for the Grip Engraving Company in Toronto in 1895 and regularly painted on weekends with other staff members including Tom Thomson, Frederick Varley, Arthur Lismer and Franklin Carmichael. MacDonald's In Algoma was offered by Joyner Canadian Fine Art in the Fall of 2006 with an estimate of $25,000-35,000. Fellow Group member A.Y. Jackson states in his autobiography that, "I always think of Algoma as MacDonald's country. He was a quiet, unadventurous person, who could not swim, or paddle, or swing an axe, or find his way in the bush. He was awed and thrilled by the landscape of Algoma and he got the feel of it in his painting." The small oil on board painting realized $253,000, more than ten times its presale expectation.

Frederick Varley, also born in England and trained in Europe, came to Canada in 1912 and worked as a commercial artist in Toronto. Varley's ample talent is clear not only in his landscape work in oil, but also in his extensive work in portraiture, and in his command over watercolour. Varley spent many years living on and depicting Canada's west coast. Bridge Over Lynn, an oil on canvas, presenting two hikers taking a break to enjoy the deep, colourful terrain surrounding them. It fetched a record $360,000 in Joyner's Spring, 1990 auction, more than twice its estimate.

Frank Johnston's membership with the Group was short-lived, exhibiting only once with the Group of Seven and becoming the only member to leave the association. Charles C. Hill in his book The Group of Seven: Art for a Nation quotes Fred Jacob (from an article entitled "Seven Artists Invite Criticism", Toronto Mail and Empire, 10 May, 1920) in describing Johnston as having "a gift for finding subjects that show nature in a fanciful or, at times, fantastic mood, and he catches the feeling exactly". Johnston's Autumn, Algoma went on the auction block in Joyner's Fall 2003 auction. The canvas sold for $260,500, an auction record for the artist.

FREDERICK VARLEY, BRIDGE OVER LYNN

Arthur Lismer's Logging In Nova Scotia was offered at auction in 1987 as part of the sale of the Collection of the late Lawrence T. Porter. Gemey Kelly, in Arthur Lismer, Nova Scotia, 1916-1919, writes "In the Spring, the Sackville River, which flowed by the Lismer home, was the scene of logging operations when the logs were sent down the river and caught in booms at the head of Bedford Basin. Lismer enjoyed the sight of the raging water and of the loggers clambering to untangle the jams...Lismer attempted to include the various elements of the scene, including the crossed and askewed logs, into the design of the whole". Logging In Nova Scotia fetched $385,000 in the November auction.

A.J. Casson became a member of the Group of Seven in 1926 and would live to be the last member of the Group, passing away in 1992 (he also lived the longest). Casson's October Morning graced the cover of the Spring, 2005 Joyner Auction Catalogue and Paul Duval in A.J. Casson states that "The keen sense of climatic atmosphere which had always marked [Casson's] conceptions remains, with an added strength of design and unity of color (sic) to underline the mood of awakening day". The thirty by thirty-six canvas sold for $489,000, a record for Casson.

Joyner Canadian Fine Art's Fall 2002 Auction (the first following the company's merger with Waddington's Auctioneers) included a monumental work by Franklin Carmichael. Frood Lake, a painting which had at one time been part of the Carmichael family collection, had been cited by Megan Bice in Light and Shadow: The Work of Franklin Carmichael, saying that the large oil "gives us both intimacy and expanse by placing us in a foreground space, establishing our point of view, then opening out, over the complexity of lakes and hills, to Bay of Islands in the distance. As always, the magic of light fills the space not only revealing the land to us but transforming the experience of seeing". The painting fetched $915,000 in the December, 2002 auction and remains the auction record for Carmichael.

ARTHUR LISMER, LOGGING IN NOVA SCOTIA

Tom Thomson's life ended in the Spring of 1917, three years before the formal formation of the Group of Seven. The artist not only painted, but also lived within the untamed landscapes which he produced. Even when the artist moved to Toronto during the winters, he lived in a tiny shack behind the famous Studio Building in the city. Drowning in Canoe Lake cut Thomson's life tragically short; and his painting career was even shorter, only producing work for roughly a five year period. Winter Thaw, a five by seven inch oil on panel by the artist was painted in the final months of his life and descended through the Thomson family until a private collector offered the painting in the Joyner Fall 2007 Auction. Joan Murray, Thomson expert and author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonne of the artist's work, noted that the sketch "demonstrates beautifully Thomson's characteristically delicate touch" and that "In this tiny gem, Tom Thomson has managed to present a sparing, but spacious summation of the great Canadian north". The painting fetched over $1.4 million, a record at the time for the painter.

In the Spring of 1999, Joyner Canadian Fine Art sold Lake Superior III, a canvas by prominent Group of Seven member Lawren Harris for $1.056 million, marking the first time a Canadian painting had fetched a value north of the million-dollar mark within our borders. The landmark sale was met not only with excitement, but also wonder as to how long it would be before a million dollars would be exceeded by a work again. In May of 2001, the answer arrived with Baffin Island, a forty by fifty inch canvas by Harris. On August 1st, 1930, Harris and A.Y. Jackson left from Sydney, Nova Scotia on board a government supply ship that served the Canadian Arctic outposts. During the trip, Harris produced a large number of sketches, from which this canvas resulted. The painting entered the auction with an estimate of $600,000-700,000 and sold for $2.4 million, the first Canadian painting to sell for more than $2 million at auction. The sale thrust the Canadian Auction world into both the national and international spotlight, with news of the sale being carried by news outlets across the country, including the front page of both national newspapers.

Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven explored the character of the Canadian landscape and worked enthusiastically to represent our topography not only to those outside of our borders, but also to those within, providing a modern national vision and style within a world still connected to the artistic traditions of Europe. The artists believed in a distinct Canadian identity which continues to be a vital part of Canadian's lives today. The shared beliefs and the appreciation not only for the paintings, but also for the land which they depict explain one of the many reasons why the works of these painters play such a large role in the artistic culture of Canada, and why the prices for these artists are incredible, but understandable.

Joyner Canadian Fine Art's Fall Auction of Important Canadian Art will take place November 25th and 26th and will include significant works by Tom Thomson and members of the Group of Seven. Further details can be obtained at joyner.ca.

LAWREN HARRIS, BAFFIN ISLAND	FRANKLIN CARMICHAEL, FROOD LAKE
J.E.H. MACDONALD, IN ALGOMA	A.J. CASSON, OCTOBER MORNING
L.L. FITZGERALD, PRAIRIES	FRANK JOHNSTON, AUTUMN, ALGOMA