TheGroup of Seven, once known asthe Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, with "a like vision".^[1] It originally consisted ofFranklin Carmichael (1890–1945),Lawren Harris (1885–1970),A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974),Frank Johnston (1888–1949),Arthur Lismer (1885–1969),J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), andFrederick Varley (1881–1969).A. J. Casson (1898–1992) was invited to join in 1926,Edwin Holgate (1892–1977) became a member in 1930, andLionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) joined in 1932.

Two artists associated with the group areTom Thomson (1877–1917) andEmily Carr (1871–1945). Although he died before its official formation, Thomson had a significant influence on the group. In his essay "The Story of the Group of Seven", Harris wrote that Thomson was "a part of the movement before we pinned a label on it"; Thomson's paintingsThe West Wind andThe Jack Pine are two of the group's most iconic pieces.^[2]

Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature,^[3] the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.^[4] The Group was succeeded by theCanadian Group of Painters in 1933, which included members from theBeaver Hall Group who had a history of showing with the Group of Seven both nationally and internationally.^[5][6]

As Montreal critic Robert Ayre said in 1940 of the period of time in which the Group of Seven was founded, "It was a grand time, a big, dramatic, heroic, if you like extravagant, optimistic time".^[7]

Large collections of work of the Group of Seven are located at theArt Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, theNational Gallery of Canada in Ottawa as well as theOttawa Art Gallery (home to TheFirestone Collection of Canadian Art) and theMcMichael Canadian Art Collection inKleinburg, Ontario. The National Gallery, under the directorship ofEric Brown, was an early institutional supporter of artists associated with the Group, purchasing art from some of their early exhibitions before they had identified themselves officially as the Group of Seven and afterwards.^[8][9] The Art Gallery of Ontario, in its earlier incarnation as the Art Gallery of Toronto, was the site of their first exhibition as the Group of Seven in 1920.^[2] TheMcMichael Canadian Art Collection was founded by Robert and Signe McMichael, who began collecting paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries in 1955.^[10] The permanent McMichael's collection consists of more than 7,000 artworks by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, their contemporaries, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and contemporary artists who have contributed to the development of the art of Canada.^[11]

Tom Thomson, J. E. H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael met as employees of thedesign firmGrip Ltd. in Toronto. In 1913, they were joined by A. Y. (Alexander Young) Jackson and Lawren Harris. They often met atthe Arts and Letters Club of Toronto to discuss their opinions and share their opinions about art.^[2]

This group received monetary support from Harris (heir to the Massey-Harris farm machinery fortune) and Dr.James MacCallum. Harris and MacCallum jointly built theStudio Building in 1914 in the Rosedale ravine to serve as a meeting and working place for the new Canadian art movement. MacCallum owned an island onGeorgian Bay and Thomson worked as a guide in nearbyAlgonquin Park, both places where he and the other artists often travelled for inspiration.^[12]

The informal group was temporarily split up duringWorld War I, during which Jackson^[13] and Varley^[14] becameofficial war artists. Jackson enlisted in June 1915 and served in France from November 1915 to 1917, at which point he was seriously injured.^[15] Harris enlisted in 1916 and taughtmusketry atCamp Borden.^[16] He was discharged in May 1918 after suffering a nervous breakdown.^[16][17] Carmichael, MacDonald, Thomson, Varley and Johnston remained in Toronto and struggled in the depressed wartime economy.^{[16][nb 1]} A further blow to the group came in 1917 when Thomson died mysteriously while canoeing in Algonquin Park. The circumstances of his death remain unclear.^[2]

The seven who formed the original group reunited after the war. They continued to travel throughoutOntario, especially theMuskoka andAlgoma regions, sketching the landscape and developing techniques to represent it in art. In 1919, they decided to make themselves into a group devoted to a distinct Canadian form of art which did not exist yet, and began to call themselves the Group of Seven.^[12] It is unknown who specifically chose these seven men, but it is believed to have been Harris or Harris in combination with MacDonald.^[18] By 1920, they were ready for their first exhibition thanks to the constant support and encouragement of Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery at that time. Reviews for the 1920 exhibition were mixed,^[19] but as the decade progressed the Group came to be recognized as pioneers of a new, Canadian,school of art.

After Frank Johnston moved to Winnipeg in the fall of 1921,Percy James Robinson is claimed to have been invited to fill the open spot. Robinson participated in the group's 3rd exhibition at theArt Gallery of Ontario.^[20] In 1926,A. J. Casson was invited to join.^[12] Franklin Carmichael had taken a liking to him and had encouraged Casson to sketch and paint for many years.

The Group's champions during its early years includedBarker Fairley, a co-founder ofCanadian Forum magazine,^[21] and the warden ofHart House at theUniversity of Toronto, J. Burgon Bickersteth.

The members of the Group began to travel elsewhere in Canada for inspiration, includingBritish Columbia,Quebec,Nova Scotia, and theArctic. AfterSamuel Gurney Cresswell and other painters on Royal Navy expeditions, these were the first artists of European descent who depicted the Arctic.^{[citation needed]} Soon, the Group made the decision that to be called a "national school of painters" there should be members from outside Toronto. As a result, in 1930Edwin Holgate from Montreal, Quebec became a member, followed byLionel LeMoine FitzGerald from Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1932.^[8]

The Group's influence was so widespread by the end of 1931, and after J. E. H. MacDonald's death in 1932, they no longer found it necessary to continue as a group of painters. They announced that the Group had been disbanded and that a new association of painters would be formed, known as theCanadian Group of Painters. The Canadian Group — which eventually consisted of the majority of Canada's leading artists — held its first exhibition in 1933, and continued to hold exhibitions almost every year as a successful society until 1967.

On September 18, 1970, Canada Post issued 'The Group of Seven', designed byAllan Robb Fleming and based on a painting,Isles of Spruce (1922), by Arthur Lismer and held in the Hart House Permanent Collection,University of Toronto. The 6¢ stamps are perforated 11, and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited.^[22]

On June 29, 1995, Canada Post issued 10 stamps, each based on a painting of a member of the group (7 original members and 3 additional members):

• Francis Hans Johnston,Serenity, Lake of the Woods^[23]
• Arthur Lismer,A September Gale, Georgian Bay^[24]
• James Edward Hervey MacDonald,Falls, Montreal River^[25]
• Frederick Horsman Varley,Open Window^[26]
• Franklin Carmichael,October Gold^[27]
• Lawren Stewart Harris,North of Lake Superior^[28]
• Alexander Young Jackson,Evening, Les Éboulements^[29]
• Alfred Joseph Casson,Mill Houses^[30]
• Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald,Pembina Valley^[31]
• Edwin Headley Holgate,The Lumberjack^[32]

On May 7, 2020, Canada Post honoured the centennial of the Group's first exhibition, at the Art Gallery of Toronto (May 7, 1920), by issuing seven stamps, featuring paintings by each of the original members.^[33] The stamps were produced in a booklet of seven self-adhesives, and on a souvenir sheet of seven gummed stamps. First day ceremonies were cancelled, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so designs were unveiled online on May 6, via the social media accounts of the postal service and several galleries across the country which own the works featured on the stamps:

• In the Nickel Belt (1928), by Franklin Carmichael
• Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay (circa 1925), by Lawren S. Harris
• Labrador Coast (1930), by A.Y. Jackson
• Fire-swept, Algoma (1920), by Frank H. Johnston
• Quebec Village (1926), by Arthur Lismer
• Church by the Sea (1924), by J.E.H. MacDonald
• Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay (1921), by F.H. Varley

In 2012–2013, the Royal Canadian Mint issued seven pure silver one-ounce coins, collectively reproducing one painting by each original member:^[34]

• F.H. VarleyStormy Weather, Georgian Bay (April 2012)^[35]
• Arthur LismerNova Scotia Fishing Village (July 2012)^[36]
• Franklin CarmichaelHouses, Cobalt (October 2012)^[37]
• Lawren S. HarrisToronto Street, Winter Morning (January 2013)^[38]
• Franz JohnstonThe Guardian of the Gorge (March 2013)^[39]
• J.E.H. MacDonaldSumacs (June 2013)
• A.Y. JacksonSaint-Tite-des-Caps (September 2013)

In 1966, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario incorporated theMcMichael Canadian Art Collection, an art gallery with an institutional focus on the Group of Seven, along with "their contemporaries and on the aboriginal peoples of Canada".^[40] In addition to housing a collection of works by the Group of Seven, the museum property also contains the burial ground for six members of the group, including A.Y. Jackson,^[41] Arthur Lismer,^[42] Frederick Varley,^[43] Lawren Harris,^[44] Frank Johnston,^[45] and A.J. Casson;^[46] along with four of the artists' wives. The McMichael cemetery is situated in a small patch of consecrated land bordered by trees, with graves marked by large chunks of theCanadian Shield. The idea to use the property as a burial ground for the group was first proposed to the institution by Jackson in 1968.^[47]

In 1995, theNational Gallery of Canada compiled a Group of Sevenretrospective show, for which they commissioned the Canadian rock bandRheostatics to write amusical score. That score was released on album asMusic Inspired by the Group of Seven.

Shows of Group of Seven members or single paintings in some combination are a perennial favorite of the Canadian exhibition world, particularly of the National Gallery of Canada. Usually the Group is simply regarded as part of Canadian art history and explored in depth, as, for instance, for the centenary, the Kelowna Art Gallery in 2020 organizedNorthern Pine: Watercolours and Drawings by the Group of Seven from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection curated byIan M. Thom.^[48] For the centenary as well, the National Gallery of Canada's Philip Dombowsky of the Library and Archives at the Gallery organized a show titledGroup of Seven: Graphic Design.^[49][50]

The Group of Seven has received criticism for reinforcing the concept ofterra nullius by presenting the Canadian wilderness as pristine and untouched by humans, despite the fact that these areas had been lived in for centuries.^[51] Their status as contributors to modernism "rests ultimately on their best paintings".^[52]

• Beaver Hall Group
• Canadian Group of Painters
• Eastern Group of Painters
• Indian Group of Seven (group of Canadian First Nations Artists)
• Jewish Painters of Montreal
• Painters Eleven
• Regina Five

Wikimedia Commons has media related toGroup of Seven (artists).

• CBC Digital Archives – The Group of Seven: Painters in the Wilderness
• The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Group of Seven
• Group of Seven Gallery – McMichael Gallery

• Canadian landscape painters
• Group of Seven (artists)
• History of art in Canada
• 1920 establishments in Canada
• Canadian art movements

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