By Shamima and Makayla
THE GROUP OF SEVEN
WHO WERE THE GROUP OF SEVEN?
A group of Canadian painters that became
famous for their paintings of Canadian
landscapes.
 Started with 8 people: Tom Thompson, J.E.H
Macdonald, Arthur Lismur, A.J Casson,
Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, and Franklin
Carmichael.
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THE MEMBERS…
One of the 2 people who
brought the group
together.
 Lawren Stewart Harris
was born on Oct, 23,
1885 in Brantford,
Ontario.
 He was born into a rich
family and was the
oldest of 2 sons.
 He was best known for
his landscape paintings
in the group of seven.
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Lawren Harris
CONT…
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J.E.H MacDonald
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He and Lawren Harris brought the group
together.
James Edward Harvey MacDonald was born
on May,12th, 1873 in Durham, England.
He immigrated from England to Canada with
his parents when he was 14.
When he was 26, he married a student
named Joan Lavis and had a son named
Thoreau in 1901.
At that time, he became an art director and
supervised many of the artist that would join
the group years later. (He was like a father
figure.)
Did lots of sketching.
When his friend Tom Thompson died, he took
up poetry.
When he died at Barbados in the fall of
1932 while he was recovering from stroke,
the Group of Seven quickly fell apart.
CONT…
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Tom Thompson 
He was born on Aug,5th, 1877 in
Claremont, Ontario.
He was the youngest of 6 children,
and very artistically talented. (He
was interested in not only drawing
and painting, but he also played the
violin and mandolin.)
Tom Thompson would have been a
part of the Group but wasn’t
because he mysteriously
disappeared. (He was apparently
drowned at Algonquin lake, a place
that he went to often.)
He was very closely associated with
the group members, and his death
affected them all in a way.
CONT…
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Arthur Lismer
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He was born on June,27th,1885 in Sheffield, England.
At age 13, he apprenticed at a photo-engraving company,
and got a scholarship that he used to attend Sheffield
School of Arts from 1898 – 1905.
He immigrated to Canada in 1911, and settled to Toronto
where he started working at Grip Limited. It was there that
he met J.E.H MacDonald, Tom Thomas, and Franklin
Carmichael who would later be a part of the Group of
Seven.
As he continued to paint in Toronto, he became a part of
the Group and came up with the name ‘The Group of
Seven’ when they couldn’t come up with a name.
His influence came from the Barbizon and Post
Impressionist movements in Belgium.
He was said to be a very easy-going guy; he always had
pencils and paper with him and would make little cartoon
drawings of his friends. He was also an author.
He passed away on March 23rd of 1969 in Montreal,
Quebec and was buried alongside other members of the
Original Seven at the McMichael Gallery Grounds.
CONT…
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A.J Casson
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Alfred Joseph Casson was born on
May,17th,1898 Toronto.
After studying art in Hamilton and Toronto,
he finally got his first real job in 1919, at a
commercial art firm in Toronto as Franklin
Carmichael’s apprentice.
Carmichael took him sketching and
camping, and also introduced him to the
Group of Seven.
In 1926, Casson was invited to join the
Group to replace Frank Johnston who had
shown only in the group's first exhibition in
1920.
He was well known for his watercolor
paintings.
He is remembered for his support of other
artists and charitable organizations and his
generosity in assisting students and
scholars.
CONT…
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Frank Johnston
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He was born on June,19th,1888 in Toronto,
Ontario.
Right out of High School, he began working at
Grip Limited, and it was there that he met the
founders of the Group of Seven.
His painting were sold a lot faster than some
artists because he chose to paint decorative
scenes rather than whatever he felt like.
He spent a year working at the Ontario
College of Art in the early 1920’s, but by the
fall of 1921, he left Toronto to work at the
Winnipeg School of Art.
He officially broke away from the Group of
Seven by 1924.
In 1927 he changed his name to Franz
Johnston to make decent money off of his
paintings because a lot of people didn’t like
the Group of Seven and he didn’t want that to
come in the way of his career.
CONT…
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Frederick H. Varley
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Frederick Horsman Varley was born on
Jan,2nd,1881 in Sheffield, England.
He moved to Ontario, Canada in 1912, and
started working at Grip Limited.
During that time, he met Tom Thompson
and the two began to paint many
landscapes in Northern Ontario.
He was one of the two members of the
Group that painted portraits.
When the great depression came, he
noticed a reduction in his salary and left
with his friend to start a new school, (which
ended in bankruptcy less than 2 years
later), and it was also the time that his wife
left him.
He moved to Montreal where he suffered
from alcoholism for many years.
After a while, he got over his depression and
moved back to Ontario where he started
painting again.
CONT…
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Franklin
Carmichael
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He was born on May,4th,1890 in
Orillia, Ontario.
He apprenticed for Grip Ltd. And it
was here that he met Tom
Thomson, Arthur Lismer, J. E.
MacDonald and Frederick Varley.
They formed a group of painters
that included Tom and worked
together to start their proffetional
lives as artists.
In 1925, he founded the Ontario
Society for Painters in Watercolors
with A.J Casson and F.H Brigden.
Despite being the youngest of the
group, he was president from
1932 – 1934.
WHAT DID THEY DO?
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They went around Canada, particularly provinces
and places like B.C, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the
arctic to paint pictures of the Landscapes.
SUMMARY…
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MacDonald, Lismer, Varley, Johnston and Carmichael all met at Grip Limited
– a design firm in Toronto. Jackson and Harris both became acquainted with
the group when Lismer befriended them at the Arts and Letters Club of
Toronto.
In 1919, the group started calling themselves ‘The Group of Seven’. They
couldn’t come up with a better name, so it stuck.
The group was bought together by Lawren Harris and J.E.H MacDonald.
It was funded by Lawren Harris and Dr. James MacCallum.
The Group had their first exhibition in 1920. At this time, people considered
Canadian Landscapes ugly, and the group was criticized a lot.
Frank Johnson left the group in 1921 for a job in Winnipeg, and so a position
was empty.
In 1926, A.J Casson was added to the group, taking Frank Johnson’s spot.
The Group of Seven's last show took place in 1931. They realized that more
people were open to their work now, and didn’t need to stay in a group to
stand up against the criticism.
In the same year, a new group was formed: The Canadian Group of Painters,
which included some of the members from the Group of Seven.
GALLERY!!~
The Red Maple by A.Y Jackson.
Mount Lefroy by Lawren Harris
CONT…
Afternoon Sun by Lawren Harris
The Jack Pine by Tom Thompson
( I know he’s not part of the group,
but this is one of his infamous
paintings that people mistake for
as one of the Group of Sevens)
CONT…
Autumn in the Northland by Franklin
H. Carmichael