North Shore Historic Art

Arthur Lismer RCA OSA G7 (1885-1969)

Arthur Lismer was a founding member of the famed Group of Seven, Canada’s most illustrious group of artists. He was born in Yorkshire, Sheffield, England and began his art education at the Sheffield School of Art. He worked as an illustrator for the Sheffield Independent newspaper and through this, sketched such people as Winston Churchill and George Bernard Shaw. He then attended the Acedemie des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. In 1911 he was recruited to come to Canada to work as an engraver, and eventually ended up at Grip Ltd. where he met Tom Thomson, and future Group of Seven members J.E.H. MacDonald, Franklin Carmichael, Fred Varley, and Frank H. Johnston. He soon joined the Arts and Letters Club, where most of the day’s prominent artists socialized, and Lismer met Lawren Harris, who would be instrumental in the formation of the Group of Seven in 1920 and fellow Group member, A.Y. Jackson. He began going on sketching trips with Tom Thomson and the two quickly became friends. In 1913, Lismer received his first invitation to the famed cottage of Dr. MacCallum on Georgian Bay, a place frequented by members of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. Over the years, Lismer went on countless sketching trips with all members of the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. During WWI, he was commissioned by the Canadian War Records to paint scenes from the War and the war effort back home. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Ontario Society of Artists. His works are in the National Gallery of Canada, The McMichael Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and all other major galleries in Canada. He is one of Canada’s best known and most respected artists.  

Click Here to Return to the Home Page

© 2011 North Shore Historic Art