CANADIAN ART

AND ARTISTS

Cornelius Krieghoff

Nineteenth-century Canadian painter Cornelius Krieghoff is known for his snow scenes showing French Canadians engaged in rural pursuits, such as the sleigh ride in Winter Sleigh. Krieghoff was born in The Netherlands, and his detailed scenes and careful observation display the influence of Dutch genre painting.

J. E. H. MacDonald

Noted Canadian landscape painter J. E. H. MacDonald belonged to the Group of Seven, painters who sought to create a distinctively Canadian art. MacDonald used broad, rough brushstrokes and simplified, stylized forms to capture the rugged landscape of Canada in paintings such as Lake Oesa and Mount Lefroy (1928).

A. Y. Jackson

In 1927 Canadian artist A. Y. Jackson became the first member of the Group of Seven landscape painters to travel to the Arctic in search of distinctively Canadian imagery. The painting Arctic, with its rolling landforms and glaciers, displays the bold simplification and almost abstract style that dominated Jackson’s work from the 1920s on.

Lawren Harris

Canadian painter Lawren Harris simplified shapes and used vivid colors in his monumental images of the Canadian wilderness, such as Spruce and Snow. Over time, his work grew increasingly abstract. Harris was a member of the Group of Seven, artists who came together about 1920 to create a distinctively Canadian art.

Tom Thomson

Influential painter Tom Thomson inspired the Canadian landscapists who are known as the Group of Seven. He made many small oil sketches, such as Morning (1916), in which simple shapes, vigorous brush strokes, and vivid color express his sense of the northern Ontario wilderness.

David Milne

Canadian painter David Milne turned the surfaces of his works into patterns of delicate lines, shapes, and colors. Although revered for his watercolors, Milne also painted in oil on canvas, as in Tent in Temagami (1929), which depicts a campsite in a white pine forest in Ontario.

Frederick Varley

Canadian painter Frederick Varley belonged to Canada’s Group of Seven painters who sought to create a new kind of painting based on Canada’s natural beauty. Although Varley is better known for figures than for landscapes, he created some colorful, densely textured landscapes such as Tree Patterns, Kootenay Lake after moving to British Columbia in the mid-1920s.

Arthur Lismer

Like other painters in Canada’s Group of Seven, Arthur Lismer primarily painted the Canadian wilderness of northern Ontario. He returned many times to the Georgian Bay. This late work, Georgian Pine (1952), focuses on the rhythms created by the violently wind-twisted tree.

Inuit Ivory Sculpture

Ivory carving, especially of arctic animals such as the walrus, is a tradition among the Inuit that dates to prehistoric times. Even today, the carvings are an important part of the Inuit culture and economy. Many Inuit earn their living by selling the carefully crafted figurines.

Shannon Lawlor

Images from the past, the current and her ever-present dreams are now the reality expressed in her ability to capture Western Culture in transition. From the tranquility of the prairies, to the ruggedness of the range, Shannon eloquently details her work. Shannon acknowledges her attributes to the inspiration of the people and the places she has encountered. The endless rope of Western Culture had Shannon embraced from the beginning.

Gil Menzies

One of the gifts his father gave him was an appreciation and a love for the outdoors. Fishing trips along the rivers and camping experiences at sites near lakes were great adventures for Gil with his father. Brown and rainbow trout beckoned in summer as well as pike caught through the ice. Hunting ducks and geese near sloughs provided more excitement, and listening to big game hunting stories at home provided more fuel for future experiences for this young lad.

Robert Bateman

Emily Carr

Despite changes in her style, approach and intent, she remained absorbed by two principal and often overlapping themes: the "disappearing" First Nations cultures and the western landscape. She is perhaps best known for the work she produced in the last decade of her life — dark and rhythmic forests, vast spiritual skies and monumental totemic structures — when she developed a style that was entirely her own.

A.Y. JACKSON

A.Y. Jackson often joined the painters who would one day be known as the Group of Seven on major trips to Algonquin Park, Georgian Bay, Algoma and the North Shore. Like the other Group painters, Jackson embraced landscape themes and sought to develop a bold style. An avid outdoorsman, Jackson became good friends with Tom Thomson, and the duo often fished and sketched.

CORNELIUS KRIEGHOFF

Cornelius Krieghoff is probably the most popular Canadian painter of the 19th century. Krieghoff is most famous for his paintings of Canadian landscapes and Canadian life outdoors, particularly in the winter. He painted a number of variants of his most popular subject matter

MAUD LEWIS

Maud Lewis was a folk artist born in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia.She suffered from disabilities as a result of childhood polio, and lived most of her life in poverty. She began her artistic career by hand-drawing Christmas cards. These proved popular with her husband's customers as he sold fish door to door and encouraged her to begin painting. She used bright colours in her paintings and subjects were often of oxen teams, horses, or cats. All of her paintings are of outdoor scenes.

ARTHUR LISMER

September Gale, Georgian Bay

Collaborating with the group of artists who would, in 1919, become the Group of Seven, Lismer exhibits the characteristic organic style, and spiritual connection with the landscape that would embody that group's work.

ARTHUR LISMER

March Crossing   1977

"This is an out-of-time, out-of-season image: no movement, nobody on deck to watch the sea go by, and distant drift ice on the horizon (that gave me another horizontal line to play with). My recollection is of some level crossing on a ferry between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, just the throb of the engines and that straight, relentless push through the sea."

TOM THOMPSON

KWAKIULT

Crooked Beak Hamatsa Mask

This Kwakiutl mask was made about 1920. It is carved and painted red cedar, with shredded red cedar bark, and weighs about 12 pounds. The mask is a representation of Hamatsa, a personification of the Man-Eater Bakhwbakwalanooksiwey, a spirit in Kwakiutl mythology. This mask is worn by one of the dancers during the Kwakiutl Winter Ceremony, known as Tseyka.

IROQUOIS

Iroquois Mask

Masks play an important role in the culture of many indigenous communities, including that of the Iroquois. This “false-face” mask is made of wood carved from a living tree, but the Iroquois are also known for their cornhusk masks.