Framed Group of Seven Print – Tom Thomson – WEST WIND 1917 McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Available in-gallery, or for local pick-up only. This print is of Tom Thomson’s final painting before his untimely death in 1917. He had painted a small sketch on one of the lakes in Algonquin and then worked on the canvas in his studio in Toronto. WEST WIND is reproduced with copyright permission. Therefore, the colours are true to the original. 

Image size: 8 1/2″  x 9 3/4″”. Framed to 13 1/4″ x 14 1/2″ Professionally framed in a dark grey aluminum frame with white slightly textured archival mat.

The Artist: Tom Thomson (1877-1917) is arguably Canada’s most intriguing, and perhaps its most iconic artist. Tom’s love of the wilderness led him to Algonquin Park in the spring of 1912 with a sketch kit in hand, and he encouraged his colleagues at Grip in Toronto, (future Group of Seven members, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Fred Varley and Franklin Carmichael) to join him, where they painted together and became known informally as the Algonquin School. Through MacDonald, Thomson also met Lawren Harris and shared studios with A.Y. Jackson at the Studio Building where Lawren Harris was driving and supporting a new movement in Canadian art. By 1914, Thomson’s paintings of the north were already becoming recognized by The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Unfortunately, the progress of the informal group of artists were interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. The group would not formally come together again until after Tom’s death, to form Canada’s first national school of painting, the Group of Seven. On July 8, 1917, Thomson disappeared while paddling across Canoe Lake. His body was found 8 days later. Though ruled an accidental drowning, the cause of his death is surrounded by skepticism to this day. Although Tom Thomson did not live to see the birth of the Group, his name became synonymous with the radical group of painters who would create and reflect  Canadian identity through painting.

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