McMichael gallery acquires Lawren Harris artifacts

Toronto Star
Feb. 26, 2014
By Debra Yeo

Artifacts from a member of Canada’s Group of Seven have been donated to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

A paintbox, two palettes, a wood panel for sketching, a canvas stretcher, several knives and brushes, and a small wooden box containing drawing tools all belonged to Lawren Harris, the Brantford-born painter credited by the gallery with being most responsible for forming the Group of Seven.

They were donated by his grandson, Stewart Sheppard, the gallery said in a news release, calling the objects “an invaluable source of insight into the working methods of one of Canada’s most celebrated artists and thinkers.”

“The work of Lawren Harris represents such an important part of the Collection, and these objects will give curators, art historians and visitors a better understanding of the artistic process behind Canadian masterworks like Mt. Lefroy and Pic Island,” said McMichael CEO Victoria Dickenson said in the release.

Several of the items are on display now in the Kleinburg gallery.

The McMichael also has similar artifacts that belonged to Group of Seven members.

The McMichael currently possesses similar artifacts belonging to original Group of Seven members J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Franklin Carmichael, F.H. Varley, Frank Johnston and Arthur Lismer, as well as later members A.J. Casson and L.L. FitzGerald, and Tom Thomson, who is associated with the Group.

It was a Harris painting, Montreal River (1920), that started the McMichael’s Group of Seven collection when it was purchased by founders Robert and Signe McMichael.

Harris and his wife, Bess, are buried in the Artists’ Cemetery on the McMichael grounds, alongside five fellow Group of Seven members and their wives.