Tom Thomson

The Canadian painter Tom Thomson (1877-1917) was the forerunner of the Group of Seven, the national movement in landscape painting. He is best known as an interpreter of the Canadian wilderness.

Tom Thomson was born at Claremont, Ontario, not far from Toronto but was brought up at Leith on the shores of Georgian Bay. After an unpromising beginning as a machinist, he worked as a photoengraver in Seattle, Wash., from 1901 to 1904, when he returned to Canada. In 1907 Thomson joined the art department of Grip Limited in Toronto, where several of the men who after World War I formed the Group of Seven worked, among them J. E. H. MacDonal.

In 1911 Thomson made his first sketching trip by canoe into the Mississauga Forest Reserve with one of his fellow artists. The following year he went on a longer trip into Algonquin Park, a provincial forest with which his name has been linked ever since. When he returned to Toronto with a number of small oil sketches, he happened to drop in on his friend MacDonald when Dr. J. M. MacCallum was in the studio. The doctor, the friend and patron of the Group of Seven, was immediately impressed with Thomson, and when he later saw the sketches, he recognized their truthfulness in spite of their dark color and timid handling.

Thomson's first large canvas, based on one of these sketches, was A Northern Lake, which was exhibited in the Annual Exhibition of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1913 and was bought, much to the artist's surprise, by the Ontario government. Thereafter, with the backing of Dr. MacCallum, he dropped his career as a commercial artist and devoted himself to painting.

Each year, with growing mastery, Thomson charted the changing seasons in Algonquin Park with a steady stream of sketches, from dazzling impressions of sunlight on snow in March, the breakup of the ice in spring, the flaming sunsets and northern lights of summer, to the pageantry of autumn's reds and golds and the gathering snow clouds over the bleak November landscape. In winter he would return to his studio in Toronto to paint the large canvases for which he is best known. The flat pattern, swinging line, and rich texture of the larger pictures reflect the influence of the Art Nouveau style then in vogue; but in the original sketches the strong color, bold design, and rapid brushwork have a conviction and expressive force never equaled in paintings of the Canadian northland.

Tragedy struck in the summer of 1917. On July 8 Thomson set off for a day's fishing on Canoe Lake. His upturned canoe was found that evening; his body, with the legs tangled in a fishing line, a week later. The coroner recorded the death as accidental, but there are still those who suspect foul play.

Further Reading

The best-documented monograph on Thomson is Joan Murray, The Art of Tom Thomson (1971), published as an exhibition catalog by the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Additional Sources

Murray, Joan, Tom Thomson: the last spring, Toronto; Niagara Falls, N.Y.: Dundurn Press, 1994.

Thomson, Tom, Tom Thomson, the silence and the storm, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977. □

Thomson, Tom (1877–1917). Canadian landscape painter, one of the main creators of an indigenous Canadian school of painting. He was born in Claremont, Ontario, and in 1904 settled in Toronto, where he spent most of his career as a commercial artist. Encouraged by J. E. H. MacDonald and others, he began to paint seriously in about 1907, but it was only in 1914 that he was able to devote himself to art full time. He did much of his painting out of doors, notably a series of fluently spontaneous oil sketches he produced in Algonquin Provincial Park, a huge wilderness park (covering almost 3,000 square miles) northeast of Toronto (during the summer months he combined his painting with working there as a fireranger and guide). Among his more formal paintings, the most famous is the bold and brilliantly coloured Jack Pine (NG, Ottawa, 1917), which has become virtually a national symbol of Canada. Thomson's career ended tragically when he was mysteriously drowned in Algonquin Park, but his ideals were continued by the artists who formed the Group of Seven, to whom he was an inspiration (he knew most of them well). His death was probably an accident, but the uncertainty surrounding it helped to establish him as a legendary figure in Canadian art.

Thomson, Tom (b Claremont, Ontario, 4 Aug. 1877; d Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario, 8 July 1917). Canadian landscape painter, one of the main creators of an indigenous Canadian school of painting. Most of his career was spent as a commercial artist in Toronto, and it was only in 1914 that he was able to take up painting full-time. Much of his painting was done out of doors, notably a series of fluently spontaneous oil sketches he produced in Algonquin Park, a huge nature reserve north-west of Toronto. Among his more formal paintings, the most famous is the bold and brilliantly coloured Jack Pine (1917, NG, Ottawa), which has become virtually a national symbol of Canada. Thomson's career ended tragically when he was mysteriously drowned in Algonquin Park, but his ideals were continued by the artists who formed the Group of Seven, to whom he was an inspiration. His death was probably an accident, but the uncertainty surrounding it helped to establish him as a legendary figure in Canadian art.

Thomson, Tom (1877–1917). Canadian landscape painter, one of the main creators of an indigenous Canadian school of painting. Most of his career was spent as a commercial artist in Toronto, and it was only in 1914 that he was able to take up painting full time. Much of his painting was done out of doors, notably a series of fluently spontaneous oil sketches he produced in Algonquin Park, a huge nature reserve north-west of Toronto. Among his more formal paintings, the most famous is the bold and brilliantly coloured Jack Pine (1917, NG, Ottawa), which has become virtually a national symbol of Canada. Thomson's career ended tragically when he was mysteriously drowned in Algonquin Park, but his ideals were continued by the artists who formed the Group of Seven, to whom he was an inspiration. His death was probably an accident, but the uncertainty surrounding it helped to establish him as a legendary figure in Canadian art.

Tom Thomson 1877–1917, Canadian painter of typically Canadian outdoor scenes, b. Ontario. Thomson was self-taught. Most of the year he served as a guide at Algonquin Provincial Park in order to support himself as a painter. His love of the outdoors was reflected in bold, vibrantly colored landscapes, such as A Northern Lake (National Gall., Ottawa). Thomson was mysteriously drowned in the summer of 1917.