Tom Thomson
Tom Thomson (Canadian, 1877–1917) loved the rough country of northern Ontario. An avid outdoorsman and backcountry guide, he had a brief but brilliant art career profoundly influenced by the Canadian landscape. After a slow beginning as an artist, he found his stride and created hundreds of sketches recording his impressions of the wilderness in small oils remarkable for their vivid color and bold brushwork. Many of Thomson’s paintings were executed in only a few hours but are nonetheless emblematic of Canadian art. Thomson would not live to see the birth of the Group of Seven, yet despite his untimely death in 1917, his name became synonymous with the Group, and together their works have come to symbolize a distinctly Canadian identity.