Sampson-Matthews Serigraph After Tom Thomson "Aura Lee Lake," Mid-20th Century

Item Details

After Thomas John Thomson (Canadian, 1877 – 1917)
Aura Lee Lake, mid-20th century
Serigraph on paper
Unsigned
From the Group of Seven project
Printed by Sampson-Matthews Limited

Canadian artist and member of the Group of Seven, Tom Thomson was born in Ontario in 1877. During his education at a business school, Thomson developed skills in penmanship, with which Thomson was hired as a commercial designer and pen artist in Toronto. There, he met the artists who would later form the Group of Seven including Franklin Carmichael and A.Y. Jackson. An avid outdoorsman, Thomson spent much of his time in the Ontario North, often returning after days of sketching and painting the landscapes. These plein air pieces became influences and prototypes for the work the rest of the Group of Seven artists would produce.

The Group of Seven was a collective of Canadian landscape artists from 1920 to 1933. During WWII, the Canadian government in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada selected works by the Group of Seven for a war effort art project. Believing that paintings of Canadian landscapes would boost morale and national pride for soldiers abroad and citizens at home, the Group not only became a formative base in the history of Canadian art, but solidified landscapes as a primary national Canadian motif. Though Tom Thomson passed away in 1917, a few years prior to the official founding of the Group of Seven, the members have noted him to be a foundational part of the movement. His most notable paintings were chosen by the members of the Group to be printed as serigraphs by Sampson-Matthews Limited to join the collection.

• Item not examined outside of mounting

Condition

- toning to sheet; minor abrasions throughout; foxing to matting; staining to inside of glass.

Dimensions

- measures frame; image measures 23.0" W x 19.0" H.

Item #

ITMGF74260