Archive Obit: Tom Thomson, painter, July 8, 1917 (approx.)
Charlene
Tom Thomson was born near Claremont, Ontario and grew up in Leith, near
Owen Sound. In 1899 some biographers report that he unsuccessfully
tried to volunteer to fight in the Second Boer War, and instead went to
a business college in Chatham and later in Seattle, Washington. In 1904
he returned to Canada, and in 1907 joined an artistic design firm in
Toronto where many of the future members of the Group of Seven also
worked. With his colleagues he often travelled around Canada,
especially to the wilderness of Ontario, which was a major source of
inspiration for Thomson. His first exhibition was in 1913.
Beginning in 1914 he acted as a fire fighter and guide in Algonquin
Park in Ontario. During the next three years he produced many of his
most famous works, including The Jack Pine and The West Wind. However,
he disappeared during a canoeing trip in on July 8, 1917, and his body
was discovered on July 16. The official cause of death was drowning,
but there are still questions about how he actually died. It has been
speculated that he was murdered by a romantic rival or due to gambling
debts; however, no one was ever tried for causing his death. He was
buried at Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park the next afternoon, but at the
request of his family his body was exhumed and reinterred in the family
plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church on July 21.
Thomson was largely a self taught artist, although he had had a long
career as a graphic designer, much of it with Toronto's Grip Ltd.,
which gave him a keen sense of draughtsmanship. Although he began
painting and drawing at an early age as a hobby, it was only in 1912,
when Thomson was well into his thirties, that he began painting
seriously. His first trips to Algonquin Park inspired him to follow the
lead of fellow artists in producing oil sketches of natural scenes on
small, rectangular panels for easy portability while traveling. Between
1912 and his death in 1917, Thomson produced hundreds of these small
sketches, many of which are now housed in such galleries as the Art
Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada in
Ottawa.
Many of Thomson's major paintings, including The Jack Pine, Northern
River, The West Wind and "The Northern River", began as sketches before
being expanded into large oil paintings at Thomson's "studio"--an old
utility shack with a wood-burning stove on the grounds of an artist's
enclave in Rosedale, Toronto. Although Thomson sold few of these
paintings during his lifetime, they formed the basis of the posthumous
exhibitions, including one at Wembley in London, that eventually
brought international attention to his work.
Thomson's peak period of oil painting was from 1914 to 1917 with the
patronage of Toronto physician Dr. James MacCallum who enabled
Thomson's transition from graphic designer to professional painter
(although he never made a living entirely from painting).
Although Thomson was not a member of the Group of Seven (it is a common
misconception that he was), his work bears much stylistic resemblance
to that of such group members as A. Y. Jackson, Frederick Varley, and
Arthur Lismer. These artists shared in common an appreciation for
rugged, unkempt natural scenery, and all used broad brush strokes and
the liberal application of paint to capture the stark beauty and
vibrant colour of the Ontario landscape.
Thomson never visited Europe, but his art bears some stylistic
resemblance to the work of such post-impressionists as Vincent Van Gogh
and Paul Cezanne, whose work he may have known from books or visits to
art galleries. Other key influences were the Art Nouveau and Arts and
Crafts movements of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries,
both of which styles he knew from his work in the graphic arts.
Since his death, Thomson's work has grown ever-more valuable and
popular. In 2002, the National Gallery of Canada staged a major
exhibition of his work, giving Thomson the same level of prominence
afforded Picasso, Renoir, and the Group of Seven in previous years. In
recent decades, the increased value of Thomson's work has led to the
discovery of numerous forgeries of his work on the market.
Early Snow:
http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/ph/success/images/thomson.jpg
The Birch Grove:
http://www.raisethehammer.org/images/agh_01.jpg
The Jack Pine:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~larissal/images/back%20copy.jpg
Chill November:
http://www.gallery.ca/exhibitions/exhibitions/tom_thomson/_images/common/lg_image/lg_2.jpg
Photograph of Tom Thomson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TomThomson23.jpg
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