The Group of Seven

Tom Thomson - Spring Sunset, Algonquin Park - c. 1916 - oil on composite wood-pulp board - The Thomson Collection © Art Gallery of Ontario (click photo for larger image)The Group of Seven were Canadian landscape artists inspired by the wilderness paintings of Tom Thomson (1877-1917), who died under mysterious circumstances while on a trek in Ontario's Algonquin Park in 1917 (his body was found floating in Canoe Lake, but an autopsy showed an injury to the head and no evidence of water in his lungs). The artsts of the Group of Seven were strongly influenced by Post-Impressionism creating bold, vividly-colored canvases, and infusing elements of the landscape with symbolic meaning.