These Christmas and winter sketches appeared on holiday cards by members of the Group of Seven, who got their start as commercial artists and knew their way around printing and trade images. These are just few of the dozens of cards these artists produced – often for themselves – as they painted their iconic Canadian paintings.
Just to recap, the Group of Seven’s original members were Franklin CARMICHAEL, Lawren HARRIS, A.Y. JACKSON, Frank JOHNSTON, Arthur LISMER, J.E.H. MACDONALD and F.H. VARLEY. They befriended each other in Toronto and moved their work rapidly and provocatively into a unique form of Canadian modernism that left the country’s traditional art world affronted. They were mavericks who mainly made their living as commercial artists and painted in the wilderness for joy. 
Tom Thomson is often named as the founder or leader of the Group of Seven, but he died in a mysterious canoe accident on a remote lake three years before the group was officially formed in 1920. Nevertheless, he had a profound influence on colleagues and his name became synonymous with the group, which later expanded to include other artists painting in similar style.Â
See a good overview of the Group of Seven in this article about a major exhibition of their work in the U.K. here.
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As the year comes to a close, I thank you for always presenting wonderful Canadian Art Works such as these. Happy Holidays.
I so appreciate your comment I.V. and also wish you the best for the holidays and the New Year. Many thanks.
Thank you!
They are beautiful.
Thank you for the link for their exhibition. I absolutely ADORE that first drawing, so amazing. I love when pictures make us feel like we can go into the painting. Like that one, I could hop on the sleigh ride and join in the fun. Beautiful!
Precisely why I like it, too. That perspective is so inviting.
How timely, and how wonderful — a powerful reminder of their roots as graphic artists, and their skill with strong linesd & simple images.
Yes, that is exactly the point – which you always get. Thank you for weighing in.
I find a clarity in that early, graphics-influenced work that isn’t present in the later development of their work — which offered wonderful other riches, don’t misunderstand me! — I respond a lot to that clarity…