By Shamima and Makayla

 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.

 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. Lawren Harris

 He and Lawren Harris brought the group together.  James Edward Harvey MacDonald was born on May,12 th, 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  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. J.E.H MacDonald

 He was born on Aug,5 th, 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. Tom Thompson

 He was born on June,27 th,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 –  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. Arthur Lismer

 Alfred Joseph Casson was born on May,17 th,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  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. A.J Casson

 He was born on June,19 th,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  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. Frank Johnston

 Frederick Horsman Varley was born on Jan,2 nd,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. Frederick H. Varley

 He was born on May,4 th,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 – Franklin Carmichael

 They went around Canada, particularly provinces and places like B.C, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the arctic to paint pictures of the Landscapes.

 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 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 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.

The Red Maple by A.Y Jackson. Mount Lefroy by Lawren Harris

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)

Autumn in the Northland by Franklin H. Carmichael