Tom Thomson
Encyclopedia
Thomas John Thomson also known as Tom Thomson, was an influential Canadian artist of the early 20th century. He directly influenced a group of Canadian painters that would come to be known as the Group of Seven
, and though he died before they formally formed, he is sometimes incorrectly credited as being a member of the group itself. Thomson died under mysterious circumstances, which added to his mystique.
to John and Margaret Thomson and grew up in Leith
, near Owen Sound
. In 1899, he entered a machine shop apprenticeship at an iron foundry owned by William Kennedy, a close friend of his father. He was fired from his apprenticeship by a foreman who complained of Thomson's habitual tardiness.Also in 1899 he volunteered to fight in the Second Boer War
, but was refused entry into the armed forces based on a medical condition. Thomson was reputed to have been refused entry into the CEF for service in the First World War as well, but served as a fire ranger in Algonquin Park during this time. In 1901, he enrolled in a business college in Chatham
and dropped out eight months later to follow his older brother, George Thomson, who was operating a business school in Seattle, Washington
. There he met and had a brief summer romance with Alice Elinor Lambert
. In 1904, he returned to Canada, and may have studied with William Cruikshank
, 1905–1906. In 1907 Thomson joined Grip Ltd.
, an artistic design firm in Toronto
, where many of the future members of the Group of Seven also worked.
Thomson first visited Algonquin Park in Ontario in 1912; thereafter he often travelled with his colleagues around Canada, especially to the wilderness
of Ontario, which was to be a major source of inspiration for Thomson. In 1912 Thomson began working, along with other members of the Group of Seven, at Rous and Mann Press, but left the following year to work as an artist full-time. He first exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists in 1913, and became a member in 1914, when the National Gallery of Canada
purchased one of his paintings. He would continue to exhibit with the Ontario Society until his death. For several years he shared a studio and living quarters with fellow artists, before taking up residence on Canoe Lake
. Beginning in 1914 he worked intermittently as a fire fighter, ranger, and guide in Algonquin Park, but found that such work did not allow enough time for painting. During the next three years he produced many of his most famous works, including The Jack Pine
, The West Wind
and The Northern River.
ing trip on Canoe Lake
in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917 and his body was discovered in the lake eight days later. The official cause of death was accidental drowning, but there are still questions about how he actually died. It was reported that there was fishing line wrapped around his leg and he had a head injury (which may have been post mortem). It has also been speculated that he was murdered by a German-American neighbour, Martin Blecher, Jr., or that he fell on a fire grate during a drunken brawl with J. Shannon Fraser, owner of Canoe Lake's Mowat Lodge, over an old loan to Fraser for the purchase of canoes. Thomson allegedly needed the money for a new suit to marry Winnifred Trainor, whose parents had a cottage at Canoe Lake. Rumours circulated following his drowning that she was pregnant with Thomson's child. Winnifred Trainor made a trip to Philadelphia with her mother the following winter and returned around Easter. She never spoke about her relationship with Thomson. A nephew, Terrance Trainor McCormick, an upper New York resident who inherited her estate, which included at least 13 small Thomson paintings and letters, said the letters confirm their engagement. McCormick has refused to produce the letters for scholarly investigation. Others believe that Thomson, who produced at least 63 landscape paintings that last spring, many of which he gave away or discarded, suffered severe depression and drowned himself. He was buried at Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 17, 1917, without family members having seen the body. Under the direction of his older brother, George Thomson, the body was exhumed two days later and re-interred in the family plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church on July 21. None of these theories are conclusive, and the wide range of speculation serves mostly to perpetuate Thomson's romantic legend.
with Toronto's Grip Ltd.
, an experience which honed his draughtsmanship. Although he began painting and drawing at an early age, it was only in 1912, when Thomson was well into his thirties, that he began to paint seriously. His first trips to Algonquin Park inspired him to follow the lead of fellow artists in producing oil sketches of natural scenes on small, rectangular panels for easy portability while travelling. Between 1912 and his death in 1917, Thomson produced hundreds of these small sketches, many of which are now considered works in their own right, and are housed in such galleries as the Art Gallery of Ontario
in Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada
in Ottawa.
Many of Thomson's major paintings, including Northern River, The Jack Pine, and The West Wind
, began as sketches before being expanded into large oil painting
s at Thomson's "studio"—an old utility shack with a wood-burning stove on the grounds of the Studio Building
, an artist's enclave in Rosedale, Toronto
. Although Thomson sold few of these paintings during his lifetime, they formed the basis of posthumous exhibitions, including one at Wembley
in London, that eventually brought international attention to his work.
Thomson's peaked creatively between 1914 and 1917. He was aided by the patronage
of Toronto physician James MacCallum, who enabled Thomson's transition from graphic designer to professional painter.
Although the Group of Seven was not officially founded until after Thomson's death, his work is sympathetic to that of group members A. Y. Jackson
, Frederick Varley
, and Arthur Lismer
. These artists shared an appreciation for rugged, unkempt natural scenery, and all used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the stark beauty and vibrant colour of the Ontario landscape.
Thomson's art bears some stylistic resemblance to the work of such post-impressionists as Vincent Van Gogh
and Paul Cézanne
, whose work he may have known from books or visits to art galleries. Other key influences were the Art Nouveau
and Arts and Crafts
movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, styles with which he would have been familiar from his work in the graphic arts.
For artist and Thomson biographer Harold Town
, the brevity of Thomson's career hinted at an artistic evolution never fully realized. He cites the oil painting Unfinished Sketch as "the first completely abstract work in Canadian art," a painting that, whether or not it was intended as a purely non-objective work, presages the innovations of Abstract expressionism
.
Since his death, Thomson's work has grown in value and popularity. In 2002, the National Gallery of Canada staged a major exhibition of his work, giving Thomson the same level of prominence afforded Picasso, Renoir
, and the Group of Seven in previous years. In recent decades, the increased value of Thomson's work has led to the discovery of numerous forgeries
of his work on the market.
In September 1917 the artists James E. H. MacDonald
and John W. Beatty
, assisted by area residents, erected a memorial cairn at Hayhurst Point on Canoe Lake, where Thomson died. The cost was paid by MacCallum. It can be accessed by boat. In the summer of 2004 another historical marker honouring Thomson was moved from its previous location nearer the centre of Leith to the graveyard in which Thomson is now buried. In 1967 the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery opened in Owen Sound. Numerous examples of his work are also on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
in Kleinburg, Ontario
. Thomson's influence can be seen in the work of later Canadian artists, including Emily Carr
, Goodridge Roberts, Harold Town, and Joyce Wieland
.
In 1970, Judge William Little published a book, The Tom Thomson Mystery
, about his digging up of Thomson's original gravesite in the Mowat Cemetery on Canoe Lake in 1956. He and three companions found a body in what they believed was Thomson's coffin. Medical investigators determined that the body was that of an unknown Native Canadian. However Roy MacGregor
has described a new (2009) examination of the 1956 evidence and concluded that the body was actually Thomson, indicating "that Thomson never left Canoe Lake."
Joyce Wieland
based a movie (The Far Shore) on the life and death of Tom Thomson.
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
, and though he died before they formally formed, he is sometimes incorrectly credited as being a member of the group itself. Thomson died under mysterious circumstances, which added to his mystique.
Personal life
Tom Thomson was born near Claremont, OntarioClaremont, Ontario
Claremont is a Southern Ontario community located in the north part of the City of Pickering, Ontario, Canada.It is one of many rural villages with suburban type housing mixed with older, historic buildings in the Greater Toronto Area. Brock Road, the main north-south Regional road in the area was...
to John and Margaret Thomson and grew up in Leith
Leith, Ontario
The unincorporated village of Leith, named after Leith, Scotland, is located on the eastern shore of the Owen Sound, an inlet on the south shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, about 9 km northeast of the city of Owen Sound, Ontario in Canada. Leith was established on the Telfer Creek where it...
, near Owen Sound
Owen Sound, Ontario
Owen Sound , the county seat of Grey County, is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada...
. In 1899, he entered a machine shop apprenticeship at an iron foundry owned by William Kennedy, a close friend of his father. He was fired from his apprenticeship by a foreman who complained of Thomson's habitual tardiness.Also in 1899 he volunteered to fight in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, but was refused entry into the armed forces based on a medical condition. Thomson was reputed to have been refused entry into the CEF for service in the First World War as well, but served as a fire ranger in Algonquin Park during this time. In 1901, he enrolled in a business college in Chatham
Chatham-Kent, Ontario
Chatham–Kent is a unitary authority in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Mostly rural, its centres of population are Blenheim, Chatham, Dresden, Ridgetown, Tilbury and Wallaceburg. Modern Chatham–Kent was created in 1998 by the merger of Kent County and its municipalities.- History :The former city of...
and dropped out eight months later to follow his older brother, George Thomson, who was operating a business school in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. There he met and had a brief summer romance with Alice Elinor Lambert
Alice Elinor Lambert
Alice Elinor Lambert was an American romance writer.In the 1930s, she self-published with Vanguard Press at least three romance novels: Hospital Nocture, Women Are Like That, and Lost Fragrance, all later re-published by Dell Romance. In 1904, she enjoyed a brief summer romance with Canadian...
. In 1904, he returned to Canada, and may have studied with William Cruikshank
William Cruikshank (painter)
William Cruikshank was a British painter and the grand-nephew of George Cruikshank. He studied art at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, at the Royal Academy in London, and in Paris. His last studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War...
, 1905–1906. In 1907 Thomson joined Grip Ltd.
Grip Ltd.
Grip was the name of the Toronto, Ontario design firm that was home to many of Canada's premier designers and painters during the first half of the 20th century....
, an artistic design firm in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, where many of the future members of the Group of Seven also worked.
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
of Ontario, which was to be a major source of inspiration for Thomson. In 1912 Thomson began working, along with other members of the Group of Seven, at Rous and Mann Press, but left the following year to work as an artist full-time. He first exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists in 1913, and became a member in 1914, when the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
purchased one of his paintings. He would continue to exhibit with the Ontario Society until his death. For several years he shared a studio and living quarters with fellow artists, before taking up residence on Canoe Lake
Canoe Lake (Nipissing District, Ontario)
Canoe Lake is a lake located in Algonquin Provincial Park in Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. Canoe Lake is a major access point for many canoeists entering Algonquin Park as well as being home to many cottages....
. Beginning in 1914 he worked intermittently as a fire fighter, ranger, and guide in Algonquin Park, but found that such work did not allow enough time for painting. During the next three years he produced many of his most famous works, including The Jack Pine
Jack Pine (painting)
The Jack Pine is a well-known oil painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. A representation of the most broadly distributed pine species in Canada, it is considered an iconic image of the country's landscape, and is one of the country's most widely recognized and reproduced artworks.The painting...
, The West Wind
The West Wind (painting)
The West Wind is a well-known painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. An iconic image, the pine at its centre has been described as growing "in the national ethos as our one and only tree in a country of trees"...
and The Northern River.
Mysterious death
Thomson disappeared during a canoeCanoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
ing trip on Canoe Lake
Canoe Lake (Nipissing District, Ontario)
Canoe Lake is a lake located in Algonquin Provincial Park in Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. Canoe Lake is a major access point for many canoeists entering Algonquin Park as well as being home to many cottages....
in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917 and his body was discovered in the lake eight days later. The official cause of death was accidental drowning, but there are still questions about how he actually died. It was reported that there was fishing line wrapped around his leg and he had a head injury (which may have been post mortem). It has also been speculated that he was murdered by a German-American neighbour, Martin Blecher, Jr., or that he fell on a fire grate during a drunken brawl with J. Shannon Fraser, owner of Canoe Lake's Mowat Lodge, over an old loan to Fraser for the purchase of canoes. Thomson allegedly needed the money for a new suit to marry Winnifred Trainor, whose parents had a cottage at Canoe Lake. Rumours circulated following his drowning that she was pregnant with Thomson's child. Winnifred Trainor made a trip to Philadelphia with her mother the following winter and returned around Easter. She never spoke about her relationship with Thomson. A nephew, Terrance Trainor McCormick, an upper New York resident who inherited her estate, which included at least 13 small Thomson paintings and letters, said the letters confirm their engagement. McCormick has refused to produce the letters for scholarly investigation. Others believe that Thomson, who produced at least 63 landscape paintings that last spring, many of which he gave away or discarded, suffered severe depression and drowned himself. He was buried at Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 17, 1917, without family members having seen the body. Under the direction of his older brother, George Thomson, the body was exhumed two days later and re-interred in the family plot beside the Leith Presbyterian Church on July 21. None of these theories are conclusive, and the wide range of speculation serves mostly to perpetuate Thomson's romantic legend.
Art and technique
Thomson was largely self-taught. He was employed as a graphic designerGraphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
with Toronto's Grip Ltd.
Grip Ltd.
Grip was the name of the Toronto, Ontario design firm that was home to many of Canada's premier designers and painters during the first half of the 20th century....
, an experience which honed his draughtsmanship. Although he began painting and drawing at an early age, it was only in 1912, when Thomson was well into his thirties, that he began to paint seriously. His first trips to Algonquin Park inspired him to follow the lead of fellow artists in producing oil sketches of natural scenes on small, rectangular panels for easy portability while travelling. Between 1912 and his death in 1917, Thomson produced hundreds of these small sketches, many of which are now considered works in their own right, and are housed in such galleries as the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
in Toronto and the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
in Ottawa.
Many of Thomson's major paintings, including Northern River, The Jack Pine, and The West Wind
The West Wind (painting)
The West Wind is a well-known painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. An iconic image, the pine at its centre has been described as growing "in the national ethos as our one and only tree in a country of trees"...
, began as sketches before being expanded into large oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
s at Thomson's "studio"—an old utility shack with a wood-burning stove on the grounds of the Studio Building
Studio Building (Toronto)
The Studio Building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada was the home and working studio of several of the famous Group of Seven painters, their predecessors, and their artistic descendants, and is of enormous significance in the history of Canadian art...
, an artist's enclave in Rosedale, Toronto
Rosedale, Toronto
Rosedale is an affluent neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which was formerly the estate of William Botsford Jarvis, and so named by his wife, granddaughter of William Dummer Powell, for the wild roses that grew there in abundance....
. Although Thomson sold few of these paintings during his lifetime, they formed the basis of posthumous exhibitions, including one at Wembley
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...
in London, that eventually brought international attention to his work.
Thomson's peaked creatively between 1914 and 1917. He was aided by the patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
of Toronto physician James MacCallum, who enabled Thomson's transition from graphic designer to professional painter.
Although the Group of Seven was not officially founded until after Thomson's death, his work is sympathetic to that of group members A. Y. Jackson
A. Y. Jackson
Alexander Young Jackson, was a Canadian painter and a founding member of the Group of Seven.- Early life and training :...
, Frederick Varley
Frederick Varley
Frederick Horsman Varley, also known as Fred Varley , was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven artists.-Early life:Varley was born in Sheffield, England. He studied art in Sheffield and in Belgium...
, and Arthur Lismer
Arthur Lismer
Arthur Lismer, CC was an English-born Canadian painter and member of the Group of Seven.-Early life:At age 13 he apprenticed at a photo-engraving company. He was awarded a scholarship, and used this time to take evening classes at the Sheffield School of Arts from 1898 until 1905...
. These artists shared an appreciation for rugged, unkempt natural scenery, and all used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the stark beauty and vibrant colour of the Ontario landscape.
Thomson's art bears some stylistic resemblance to the work of such post-impressionists as Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
and Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, whose work he may have known from books or visits to art galleries. Other key influences were the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
and Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, styles with which he would have been familiar from his work in the graphic arts.
For artist and Thomson biographer Harold Town
Harold Town
Harold Town was a Canadian abstract painter. He is best known as a member of Painters Eleven a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960. Town coined the name of the group, which was based simply on the number of artists that were present the first meeting...
, the brevity of Thomson's career hinted at an artistic evolution never fully realized. He cites the oil painting Unfinished Sketch as "the first completely abstract work in Canadian art," a painting that, whether or not it was intended as a purely non-objective work, presages the innovations of Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
.
Legacy and influence
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, and the Group of Seven in previous years. In recent decades, the increased value of Thomson's work has led to the discovery of numerous forgeries
Art forgery
Art forgery is the creation of works of art which are falsely attributed to other, usually more famous, artists. Art forgery can be extremely lucrative, but modern dating and analysis techniques have made the identification of forged artwork much simpler....
of his work on the market.
In September 1917 the artists James E. H. MacDonald
J. E. H. MacDonald
James Edward Hervey MacDonald was a member of the famous Group of Seven Canadian artists. He is the father of Thoreau MacDonald.-Life:...
and John W. Beatty
John William Beatty
John William Beatty was a Canadian painter who was a forerunner in the movement which became the Group of Seven in 1920.-Early Painting Life:...
, assisted by area residents, erected a memorial cairn at Hayhurst Point on Canoe Lake, where Thomson died. The cost was paid by MacCallum. It can be accessed by boat. In the summer of 2004 another historical marker honouring Thomson was moved from its previous location nearer the centre of Leith to the graveyard in which Thomson is now buried. In 1967 the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery opened in Owen Sound. Numerous examples of his work are also on display at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
McMichael Canadian Art Collection
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an art gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada, northwest of Toronto. It houses an extensive collection of paintings by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, and First Nations and Inuit artists....
in Kleinburg, Ontario
Kleinburg, Ontario
-External links:* * *...
. Thomson's influence can be seen in the work of later Canadian artists, including Emily Carr
Emily Carr
Emily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life...
, Goodridge Roberts, Harold Town, and Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland, OC was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist.-Life:Joyce Wieland was an experimental filmmaker and artist, whose work challenged and bridged boundaries among avant garde film factions of her time...
.
In 1970, Judge William Little published a book, The Tom Thomson Mystery
The Tom Thomson Mystery
The Tom Thomson Mystery is a book by Canadian judge William T. Little. It was first published in 1970 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson.Little's book is one of several that raised the Tom Thomson mystery to public prominence during the late 1960s/early 1970s. Thomson is regarded by some as Canada's most...
, about his digging up of Thomson's original gravesite in the Mowat Cemetery on Canoe Lake in 1956. He and three companions found a body in what they believed was Thomson's coffin. Medical investigators determined that the body was that of an unknown Native Canadian. However Roy MacGregor
Roy MacGregor
Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction. He grew up in Huntsville, Ontario. His work tends to focus on Canadian topics; Shelagh Rogers has dubbed him the "heir to Peter Gzowski"...
has described a new (2009) examination of the 1956 evidence and concluded that the body was actually Thomson, indicating "that Thomson never left Canoe Lake."
Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland, OC was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist.-Life:Joyce Wieland was an experimental filmmaker and artist, whose work challenged and bridged boundaries among avant garde film factions of her time...
based a movie (The Far Shore) on the life and death of Tom Thomson.
External links
- The Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- "Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy" at Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
- "Painting The Myth. The Mystery of Tom Thomson" an Interactive Biography
- An Art Retreat in Canada featuring the lore and lure of Tom Thomson
- Article about Thomson's relation to Canoe Lake, Algonquin Park
- 1970 CBC television program about Thomson's mysterious death
- CBC television program about Thomson's painting, The Jack Pine
- CBC -- Front Page Challenge clip on Tom Thomson's Death
- Dark Pines: a documentary investigation into the death of Tom Thomson documentary (2005)
- "The Legacy of the Group of Seven" Tom Thomson's life art and special gifts