Artistic development of Tom Thomson
Beginning from humble roots, his development as a career painter was meteoric, only pursuing it seriously in the final years of his life.
He became one of the foremost figures in Canadian art, leaving behind around 400 small oil sketches and around fifty larger works on canvas.
His art style progressed from sombre, grey scenes into brilliantly coloured exposés, characterized by rapid and thickly applied brushstrokes.
The artwork of Thomson is typically divided into two bodies: the first is made up of the small oil sketches on wood panels, of which there are around 400, and the second is of around fifty larger works on canvas.
[2] The smaller sketches were typically done in the style of en plein air in "the North," primarily Algonquin Park, in the spring, summer and fall.
[3] The larger canvases were instead completed over the winter in 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.
Because of this, they display an "inherent formality," with the transition from small to large requiring a reinvention or elaboration of the original details.
[9] Comparing sketches with their respective canvases allows one to see the changes Thomson made in colour, detail and background textural patterns.
[14] In the spring of 1917 he disassembled and cut up wood crates to make into 5 × 7 inch (12.7 × 17.8 cm) panels for sketching,[14][17] smaller than those he normally painted on and requiring tighter handling.
[18] Fragments of brand names (e.g. Gold Medal Purity Flour, California Oranges) are stamped on the back of some,[19] such as Birches and An Ice Covered Lake.
[23] Sandra Webster-Cook and Anne Ruggles described in their research how Thomson applied differently coloured primers in various parts of his paintings to give them subtle yet important qualities.
[24] Thomson occasionally used photography to capture things that gained his interest, such as fish he caught, images of his friends or the landscape.
[31][32][40] Grip was the leading graphic design company in the country and introduced Art Nouveau, metal engraving and the four-colour process to Canada.
[43] Albert Robson, then the art director at Grip, recalled that when he first hired Thomson, "his samples consisted mostly of lettering and decorative designs applied to booklet covers and some labels.
"[38][44] The techniques he learned regarding Art Nouveau became apparent in many of his later works,[45][46] including paintings like Northern River; Decorative Landscape, Birches; Spring Ice and The West Wind.
[47][48] Of particular note are the sinuous forms typical within the art style,[49] seen in the "S-curves" of the trees which have their origins in Thomson's work as a draughtsman.
[55] MacDonald himself credited William Broadhead with Thomson's emergence as a painter, writing in a letter to Arthur Lismer that "My memories in connection with Tom seem to begin with B[roadhead].
[58] A. Y. Jackson also expressed that Thomson's major development came after his ventures to Algonquin Park, rather than his time as a graphic designer.
These young artists (MacDonald, Frank Johnston, Tom McLean, Frederick Varley, Franklin Carmichael and Lismer) worked hard all week and sketched on Saturdays and Sundays.
[68] One exception is the sketch Smoke Lake, Algonquin Park, easily dated because Thomson gave it to Bud Callighen around the time of their first meeting.
[74][53][75] Leonard Rossell went on to write, "Those who worked there were all allowed time off to pursue their studies... Tom Thomson, so far as a I know, never took definite lessons from anyone, yet he progressed quicker than any of us.
"[76][44] In October 1912 Thomson was first introduced to Dr. James MacCallum, a frequent visitor of the Ontario Society of Artists' (OSA) exhibitions and The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.
"[82] Thomson's ventures to the wilderness of Ontario were major sources of inspiration in his art, writing in a letter to MacCallum that the beauty of Algonquin Park was indescribable.
[83] His early works, such as Northern Lake (1912–13) and Evening were not outstanding technically, yet they illustrate a particular talent for composition and colour handling.
[84] The sale of the former to the Ontario Government in March 1913 for $250 (equivalent to CAD$6,500 in 2023) allowed him to spend more time in the summer and fall of 1913 sketching.
"[88] While his work from this period still displays "a certain awkwardness," Thomson surpassed his colleagues Jackson and Lismer in his brilliance of colour.
[92] Jackson wrote regarding this period of Thomson's work, "No longer handicapped by literal representation, he was transposing, eliminating, designing, experimenting, finding happy colour motives amid tangle and confusion and [reveling] in paint.
[94] In 1916, Thomson left for Algonquin Park earlier than any previous year, evidenced by the large number of snow studies he produced at this time.
[96] Over the following winter, encouragement from Harris, MacDonald and MacCallum saw Thomson move into the most productive portion of his career,[97] writing in a letter that he "got quite a lot done.
