Basic HTML Version
78
Escarpment Magaz ine Summer 2012
The Studio Building
in Toronto, was the
home and working studio of several of the famous
Group of Seven painters, sometimes known as the
Algonquin school — originally consisting of
Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson,
Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald,
and Frederick Varley. The building was desig-
nated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2005.
The epitome of the starving artist, Tom Thomson
was associated with the group and shared a studio
there briefly but could not afford the $22 monthly
studio rental fee. (Never, in his lifetime, did he earn
enough to make a living from painting alone.)
Thomson didn’t enjoy working in the city and felt
that a studio was "pretentious,"— he preferred to
work closer to his beloved wilderness settings. The
other artists with whom he associated didn’t want
their talented and inspirational friend to move
away so Dr James MacCallum, a benefactor,
spent $176 (a considerable sum in those days) to
refurbish a workmen's shed on the east side of the
Studio Building and it was there, for $1 a month,
that Thomson spent his last winters. (Thomson
would spend the summers in Algonquin Park as a
ranger and fire-fighter and then decamp, during
the winter, back to Toronto and the Studio Building
to work oil sketches made during the summer and
fall into full canvases.)
|E|
www.thecranberryresort.com
Tom Thomson cabin now at the
McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg, Ontario
Lawren Harris and Dr. James MacCallum built
the Studio Building in 1914 in the Rosedale
ravine to serve as a meeting and working
place for the new Canadian art movement.
FEATURE
|
looking for tom thomson
The Toronto / Algonquin Park Connection
