They also serve who stand alone
Somewhere between the Group of Seven and their acclaimed juniors who are painting today there was a vast swath of Canadians poking away at canvases, all of whom are relevant in the big picture and most of whom are actually worth a look. I have posts coming up separately on the abstract artists of Painters 11 and the Automatistes, and will eventually get around to two other outstanding people who deserve individual consideration, Emily Carr and Graham Coughtry.
But for now, here, in no particular order, are a few of the more crusty codgers who toiled away in the Seven’s shadow and earned their vertical patches of turf on the National Gallery walls. There are many more than this; I’m just taking a sampling.
“The Cloud”, from 1942, at the top of this post, is by Bertram Brooker (1888-1955), who I think was one of the best Canadian artists who ever lived. He was a British-born writer and musician as well as a painter who was blown into Toronto in 1921 by the wind from Portage la Prairie. Freelance journalism somehow led to advertising, and thence the Arts and Letters Club, where he met Lawren Harris and others of the Seven. He and Harris must have been soul brothers, because they both ultimately soared with the spirit. See the rest.
