Flowers: JEH MacDonald, Tom Thomson, and the Group of Seven

Peter Harmathy teaches fine arts in Victoria.

Joan Murray is the author of more than 30 books on Canadian art and
artists. She was the first curator of Canadian art at the Art Gallery of
Ontario and, between 1974 and 1999, the director of the Robert
McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa.

This beautiful coffee-table book contains a fine selection of flower
paintings, drawings, and prints by artists associated with the Group of
Seven. The books is divided into two main sections: discussion of works,
artists, and influences; and the annotated plates. All artists in the
Group of Seven are well represented in the book, but it does emphasize
the work of J.E.H. MacDonald—in particular, The Tangled Garden (1916),
which serves as the groundbreaking painting to which all the others
featured here are related. MacDonald’s flower paintings broadened the
scope of subject matter for other members of the Group, by equating the
beauty and power of a seemingly simple subject to the mythic equivalent
of a grand Canadian landscape. The connections made with other members
of the Group, namely Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris, are discussed, thus
expanding our understanding of the scope and spirit of their oeuvre.

Those familiar with the more typical landscape works of the Group of
Seven will be delighted to see their lesser-known yet equally dynamic
works in the floral genre, which were produced in a range of techniques
and styles, from rough oil sketches to carefully finished still lifes
and prints. Murray even includes some of the “sketchier” works. It
is fascinating to discover that the flower theme played a formative and
necessary element in their growth, as they are the foremost artists of
our Canadian consciousness.