Tom Thomson

Tom Thomson painted the northern Ontario wilderness in bold colour and thick, lively brushwork. His lakes, rivers, pine trees and autumn forests became symbols of the Canadian landscape.

Born in Claremont, Ontario, he was largely self-taught and worked as a commercial artist in Toronto, where he met the painters who would form the Group of Seven. From 1912 he spent much of each year in Algonquin Park, painting small oil sketches on wood panels outdoors and working some of them up into larger canvases in Toronto. He died on Canoe Lake in 1917. The Jack Pine and Northern River are in the National Gallery of Canada, and The West Wind is in the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Look for the thick paint and bold, simple shapes, especially in his small sketches made on the spot.