Tom Thomson

Tom Thomson
Life & Work by David P. Silcox
The precision of Drowned Land, 1912, reveals the rapid progress Thomson was
making as an artist at this time. To cap this astonishing year in which the late-blooming
Thomson began the transition from commercial artist to full-time painter, in October
J.E.H. MacDonald (1873–1932) introduced him to Dr. James MacCallum, a professor of
ophthalmology at the University of Toronto who visited the Ontario Society of Artists
exhibitions and was particularly interested in landscape paintings. Just over a year later,
in the fall of 1913, MacCallum introduced Thomson to A.Y. Jackson (1882–1974)—a
well-trained artist who had recently returned from his third visit to France. There he had
studied at the Académie Julian and travelled widely on painting trips in Italy, France, and
England. Harris and MacCallum had been impressed by Jackson’s painting The Edge of
the Maple Wood, 1910, which they regarded as a fresh approach to the Canadian
landscape and which Harris purchased. Encouraged by their invitation, Jackson moved
from Montreal to Toronto—and in due course became a member of the Group of Seven.
Recognizing the talent of these two unknown artists, Jackson and Thomson,
MacCallum offered to cover their expenses for a year if they would devote themselves
full time to painting. As he later recalled, when he first saw Thomson’s sketches from
1912, he recognized their “truthfulness … they made me feel that the North had gripped
Thomson,” just as it had gripped him too as a boy. Both men accepted MacCallum’s
offer. Although Thomson did not realize it at the time, he had found in MacCallum a
patron, a staunch supporter, and a guardian of his paintings after his death.
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A. Curtis Williamson, Portrait of Dr. J.M.
MacCallum (“A Cynic”), 1917, oil on canvas,
67.5 x 54.9 cm, National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa. From 1913 on, MacCallum was the key
supporter for Thomson and the Group of Seven
Thomson’s Early Paintings
In 1913 Thomson began going with colleagues from Rous and Mann on weekend
painting trips to Lake Scugog or other rural and sparsely inhabited places not far from
Toronto. Although his early efforts, such as Northern Lake, 1912–13, or Evening, 1913,
are neither sophisticated nor technically outstanding, they show more than average
ability in their composition and handling of colour. When they saw works such as View
from the Windows of Grip Ltd., c. 1908–10, his astute friends began to realize that he
was not the amateur artist he thought himself to be.
Tom Thomson, Northern Lake, 1912–13, oil on
canvas, 71.7 x 102.4 cm, Art Gallery of Ontario,
Toronto. This painting, the first Thomson ever
sold, was purchased by the Government of
Ontario from the Ontario Society of Artists
exhibition in 1913
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