A Grand Eye for Glory: A Life of Franz Johnston

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

Franz Johnston was one of the original members of the famous Group of
Seven painters who transformed Canadian landscape painting in the early
decades of this century. He withdrew from the Group of Seven after its
inaugural exhibition in 1920 and in later years criticized the group for
subscribing to the orthodoxy it had set out to protest. Curiously, A
Grand Eye for Glory is the first biography of a man who was one of the
group’s most prolific and financially successful members, and who also
made an important contribution to art education in Canada.

Roger Burford Mason has published two biographies and three collections
of stories and travel essays. He is also a journalist, broadcaster, and
the editorial director of several business publications. He was drawn to
his subject by the fact that Johnston was a neglected painter of
tremendous talent, as well as an influential figure in Canadian art and
culture.

The book, which includes 16 color plates and a few black-and-white
family photographs, covers a great deal of ground and is attractively
designed. The color plates show Johnston to have been a master of light
and shade and color. A Grand Eye for Glory is a good introduction to an
undeservedly overlooked master.