"We had commenced our great adventure. We lived in a continuous blaze of enthusiasm. We were at times very serious and concerned, at other times hilarious and carefree. Above all, we loved this country and loved exploring and painting it."

The Group of Seven was a group of artists who came together in the early twentieth century. This group of artists was disillusioned with conservative styles and European influences in art. In response, they established an artistic relationship that they hoped would create truly Canadian art.

At some point in their careers, Tom Thomson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael all worked as commercial artists at Grip,Ltd, a Toronto design firm. Through this connection, the artists met and socialized at the Arts and Letters Club where Canadian art and new directions for it was frequently the topic of discussion.

This group, who would later call themselves the Group of Seven, began to meet on weekends and vacations and painted in rural areas such as the wilderness preserve Algonquin Park on the outskirts of Toronto.

The group’s artistic focus was sidelined by the First World War and also by Thomson’s tragic and early death in a canoeing accident in 1917. Jackson wrote of Thomson’s death: " Without Tom the north country seems a desolation of bush and rock; he was the guide, [and] the interpreter...."

After the war, the artists took sketching trips to the Algoma region of northern Ontario. Here they, but Harris, MacDonald and Jackson particularly, found inspiration for some of their greatest paintings. After a 1919 trip to Algoma, the group decided to host their first exhibition. At this time, they formally called themselves the Group of Seven and their members were listed as MacDonald, Carmichael, Johnston, Lismer, Harris, Varley and Jackson.

This first exhibit coincided with an era of strong Canadian nationalism which followed the First World War. As numerous critics have noted, this exhibit was an important moment in Canadian art as it represented the belief that Canadian art must be inspired by Canada itself. The group held other exhibitions in the 1920s and they were increasing seen as Canada’s national school of art.

The Group of Seven had become an influential national and artistic presence. Once or twice a year, the members met formally to plan group exhibitions. The membership would undergo some changes. In 1921, Johnston would leave the group;A. J. Casson would join in 1926. Later members of the Group included Edwin Holgate of Montreal and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald of Winnipeg.

In the middle part of the 1920s. various group members traveled to different parts of Canada to paint Canada’s diverse landscapes: Harris and MacDonald went to Nova Scotia. Jackson went to Quebec regularly; Harris, Jackson, Carmichael and Casson went to the North Shore of Lake Superior and Harris would return there annually. In 1927, Jackson was the first member to visit the Arctic and he would return there in 1938 with Harris. Varley would travel there in 1938. In the 1930s, MacDonald, Jackson, Varley, Lismer and Harris would travel to the west of Canada.

In the 1930s, the group attained popularity and people across Canada were drawn to their style and subject matter. Critics were less responsive; some felt the group was self-promoting and questioned their style and aesthetic. The group persevered and began traveling and painting other landscapes.

Although there are distinct individual styles within the Group of Seven, their collective work is of an abstract style with less detailed techniques and broad brush strokes. Their subject matters were primarily landscapes with skies and water.

The group reformed after the death of MacDonald in 1932 and called themselves the Canadian Group of Artists. Today the Group of Seven are remembered for their efforts to create a distinctive art which conveys Canada’s unique landscapes.

Franklin Carmichael 1890-1945, Original Member

Carmichael, was born in Orillia, Ontario in 1890. After arriving in Toronto in 1911, his background in commercial art connected him with Tom Thomson and a number of other commercial artists endeavoring to become serious painters.

After studying painting in Paris, Carmichael returned to Ontario and was part of the founding of the Group of Seven. His early works are almost tapestry-like in their flat juxtapositions of colour. Eventually, he began to emphasize deep, three-dimensional space. Carmichael's greatest contribution to the Group of Seven was his use of watercolour painting.

In 1932 he was appointed Head of Graphic and Commercial Art at the Ontario College of Art. He was also a founding member of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and was president of that organization from 1932 to 1934. The society held their first exhibition in 1926; the success of this exhibit resulted in regular shows throughout the years. Franklin Carmichael died in Toronto in 1945.

A.J. Casson 1898-1992, Member 1926

Alfred Joseph Casson was born in Toronto in 1898 and was a commercial artist and assistant to Frank Carmichael, when the Group of Seven formed. After the departure of Frank Johnston, the group invited Casson to join in order to retore the Group of Seven to seven members.

Unlike the other members of the group, Casson continued to work as a commercial artist throughout his activity with the group. Casson's subject matter was also slightly different in that he was not as interested in the Northern woodland spaces as were the rest of the Group of Seven. His primary subject matters were rural scenes in Southern Ontario. Like Carmichael, Casson also worked in watercolour and helped to revive this medium. He too was active in the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour.

FitzGerald was invited to become a member of the Group of Seven in 1932 and was the last member to join. Although he was called the "Painter of the Prairies," he created virtually no paintings of the flat prairie countryside.

FitzGerald was not an artist-explorer like the other members, nor did he share in the camaraderie of the group. Fitzgerald never exhibited as a member of the Group of Seven, however, he did become a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters which formed in 1932.

Lawren Harris, 1885-1970, Original Member

Lawren Harris was born in 1885. Harris’s family was the part of the Massey-Harris industrial fortune. Through his family connections, Harris was the only Group of Seven member who was free from monetary pressures. Harris has also been called the only member of the group who continually challenged himself with new styles, subject matters and visions. Eventually, his work would move into Art Deco and later pure abstract work; he would also work in ceramics and publish a volume of poems.

Harris believed that art not only needed to convey the physical world but spiritual values as well; art , he thought, should reveal the divine forces in nature. In his paintings, he attempted to incorporate his spiritual feeling for the landscape into his landscape paintings. After 1924, Harris refused to date or sign works as he did not want them tied to a person, date or place.

Edwin Holgate, 1892-1977 Member 1931

Holgate was a member of the group for a short period in 1931 and is thought to have played a fairly minor role in their history. Although he had exhibited with them as an invited contributor, he never exhibited as a member of the group since they disbanded soon after his joining. Holgate produced some of the few nudes within the group and he is best known for works which combine nudes and landscape.

A.Y. Jackson 1882-1974 Original Member

Jackson was born in Montreal in 1882 and, like other group members, he trained and made a living as a commercial artist.

In his lifetime he painted in numerous places across Canada including the West Coast the Prairies, the Arctic, and the North Woods, and in particular, the St. Lawrence. He made small sketches on wood on his sketching trips and did not limit his sketching to one particular season. When not sketching, he worked the sketches into larger canvases. He continued his active and productive lifestyle until he was in his eighties.

Frank Johnston 1888-1949 Original Member

Johnston only participated in the group’s first exhibit. In the fall of 1921, he left Toronto and became the principal of the School of Art in Winnipeg. His style was much different from the other members; his landscapes were more detailed and conveyed many subtleties. He chose close-up views that often seemed crowded. Other works showed more simple landscapes, with like clouds reflecting on water. He had slowly been drifting away from the group and in 1924, he officially resigned from the group. He asserted that there had been no disagreement with the group and cited his reason for leaving as wanting to go his own direction with exhibitions.

Arthur Lismer, 1885-1969, Original Member

Lismer was born in Sheffield, England in 1885 and emigrated to Canada in 1911 by the prospects of work. Soon, he began working at the Grip where he would meet future Group of Seven members. Lismer accompanied the other members on their sketching trips and was an original member of the group.

Lismer’s paintings were expressionist celebrations of Canada’s landscape and he used vivid colours, simple forms and coarse brushstrokes.

Lismer was also deeply committed to teaching and the teaching of art. In particular, Lismer was an active advocate and practioner of children’s art education. He established some of the most successful children’s art programs n North America. He was active in promoting the Group of Seven and wrote numerous articles about Canadian art.

Art, he said, "is the common denominator of union between men more than race, creed, history or personality. Art binds us together more than any other human activity in life."

J.E.H. MacDonald 1873-1932 Original Member

MacDonald was born in Durham, England and came to Canada with his parents when he was 14. After studying art, he eventually ended up at the Grip, Ltd with the artists who would form the Group of Seven.

Canadian art, MacDonald believed, should express the "mood and character and spirit of the country. To convey this spirit, his works were panoramic, richly coloured and often turbulent.

His fellow group members saw MacDonald as a sort of romantic and noted that he was always engaged in reading on their sketching trips. MacDonald read Whitman and Thoreau, and, like them, he believed that man could reach a higher spiritual level through nature and his art is an attempt to convey this sense of nature. In Algoma MacDonald found his greatest inspiration and many of his most memorable works emerge from his time in this region.

Frederick Horsman Varley (1881-1969)

Varley was born in Sheffield, England and was a schoolmate of Lismer.

In his early artistic career, Varley established himself as an elite portraitist for Toronto society. While portraiture provided a decent income, he disliked this genre and market. According to various sources, he was at times a difficult person to get along with. His temper and ways often clashed with his clients. One story tells of how while painting a portrait for sitting with the magnate of the Massey-Harris fortunes, Vincent Massey, Massey was an hour late for his sitting. Once Massey had been seated, Varley told him, "You wait there. Now I'm going out for an hour."

Varley was sent to France during the first World War as a Canadian War Artist and he returned a more mature individual and artist.. When he returned to Canada, he became interested in the Canadian north and became active in the group and its mandate.

Tom Thomson, (1877-1917), influential, although not officially a member.

Tom Thomson was born near Claremont, Ontario and grew up near Owen Sound. Like many of the Group of Seven, Thomson worked as a commercial artist for Grip Ltd. Thomson was taking regular sketching trips to rural part of Ontario by 1911. In 1912, he made his first trip to Algonquin Park which soon became his favorite spot to paint. These trips inspired his brightly coloured works which in turn encouraged other artists to seek out similar landscapes.

In 1917, Thomson died in a canoeing accident. As A.Y. Jackson wrote, Jackson wrote of Thomson’s death: " Without Tom the north country seems a desolation of bush and rock; he was the guide, [and] the interpreter...." While Thomson was never a formal member of the Group of Seven, his artistic works and his influence were inspirational to the remaining members. He is almost always considered a member of the Group of Seven.