79 Facts About Tom Thomson

Thomas John Thomson was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century.

Tom Thomson's works consist almost entirely of landscapes, depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers.

Tom Thomson used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape.

Tom Thomson worked several jobs before attending a business college, eventually developing skills in penmanship and copperplate writing.

Tom Thomson became enraptured with the area and repeatedly returned, typically spending his winters in Toronto and the rest of the year in the Park.

Tom Thomson developed a reputation during his lifetime as a veritable outdoorsman, talented in both fishing and canoeing, although his skills in the latter have been contested.

Thomas John "Tom" Thomson was born on August 5,1877, in Claremont, Ontario, the sixth of John and Margaret Thomson's ten children.

Tom Thomson was raised in Leith, Ontario, near Owen Sound, in the municipality of Meaford.

Tom Thomson was eventually taken out of school for a year because of ill health, including a respiratory problem variously described as "weak lungs" or "inflammatory rheumatism".

Tom Thomson was enthusiastic about sports, once breaking his toe while playing football.

Tom Thomson was an excellent swimmer and fisherman, inheriting his passion for the latter from his grandfather and father.

Tom Thomson received $2000 in 1898 but seems to have spent it quickly.

Tom Thomson tried to enlist for the Boer War three times in all, but was denied each time.

In 1901, Tom Thomson enrolled at Canada Business College in Chatham, Ontario.

Tom Thomson worked briefly as an elevator operator at The Diller Hotel.

Tom Thomson mainly produced business cards, brochures and posters, as well as three-colour printing.

Tom Thomson eventually moved on to a local engraving company.

Tom Thomson quickly returned to Leith, possibly prompted by a rejected marriage proposal after his brief summer romance with Alice Elinor Lambert.

Tom Thomson spent his free time reading poetry and going to concerts, the theatre and sporting events.

Tom Thomson wrote that Thomson made friends slowly but eventually found similar interests to his coworkers.

Tom Thomson was never understood by lots of people, was very quiet, modest and, as a friend of mine spoke of him, a gentle soul.

Tom Thomson cared nothing for social life, but with one or two companions on a sketching and fishing trip with his pipe and Hudson Bay tobacco going, he was a delightful companion.

Robson later spoke favourably of Tom Thomson's loyalty, calling him "a most diligent, reliable and capable craftsman".

Tom Thomson took several months off in the summer and spent them in Algonquin Park.

MacCallum eventually persuaded Tom Thomson to leave Rous and Mann and start a painting career.

Tom Thomson was sensitive and independent, and feared he might become an object of patronage.

Tom Thomson accepted MacCallum's offer under the same terms offered to Jackson.

Tom Thomson travelled around Ontario with his colleagues, especially to the wilderness of Ontario, which was to become a major source of inspiration.

Addison and Little suggest that he guided fishing tours, although Hill finds this unlikely since Tom Thomson had only spent a few weeks in the Park the previous year.

Tom Thomson became as familiar with logging scenes as with nature in the Park and painted them both.

Tom Thomson first exhibited with the OSA in March 1913, selling his painting Northern Lake to the Ontario Government for $250.

Jackson recalled that in the fall of 1914, Tom Thomson threw his sketch box into the woods out of frustration, and was "so shy he could hardly be induced to show his sketches".

Harris expressed similar sentiments, writing that Tom Thomson "had no opinion of his own work", and would even throw burnt matches at his paintings.

On March 3,1914, Thomson was nominated as a member of the OSA by Lismer and T G Greene.

Tom Thomson did not participate in any of their activities beyond sending paintings for annual exhibitions.

When he was in Toronto, Tom Thomson rarely left the shack in the daytime and then only when it was absolutely necessary.

Tom Thomson would put on his snowshoes and tramp the length of the Rosedale ravine and out into the country, and return before dawn.

In late April 1914, Tom Thomson arrived in Algonquin Park, where he was joined by Lismer on May 9.

Tom Thomson spent his spring and summer divided between Georgian Bay and Algonquin Park, visiting James MacCallum by canoe.

Addison and Harwood instead said that Tom Thomson had found much of the inland "monotonously flat" and the rapids "ordinary".

Wadland found this characterization unhelpful, pointing out that the rapids Tom Thomson had faced were hardly "ordinary".

Tom Thomson continued to paint around the islands until he departed, probably because he found MacCallum's cottage too demanding socially, writing to Varley that it was "too much like north Rosedale".

Why Tom Thomson did not serve in the war has been debated.

Mark Robinson and Tom Thomson's family said that he was turned down after multiple attempts to enlist, likely due to his poor health and age but possibly because he had flat feet.

Tom Thomson's sister suggested that he was a pacifist and that "he hated war and said simply in 1914 that he never would kill anyone but would like to help in a hospital, if accepted".

Tom Thomson was very outspoken in his opposition to Government patronage.

Tom Thomson briefly looked into applying for a position as a park ranger, but balked after seeing that it could take months for the application to go through.

Tom Thomson made little effort to sell his paintings, preferring to give them away, though he brought in some money from the paintings he sold.

Tom Thomson produced four panels which were probably meant to go over the windows.

Tom Thomson again reveals his capacity to be modern and remain individual.

In 1916, Tom Thomson left for Algonquin Park earlier than any previous year, evidenced by the many snow studies he produced at this time.

Tom Thomson produced many sketches which varied in composition, although they all had vivid colour and thickly-applied paint.

Tom Thomson added that Harris thought the tree killed Thomson, "but he sprang up and continued painting".

Tom Thomson followed the Booth Lumber Company's log drive down the Petawawa River to the north end of the park.

Tom Thomson had little money but wrote that he could manage for about a year.

Tom Thomson invited Daphne Crombie to select something from his spring sketches as a gift, and she selected Path Behind Mowat Lodge.

Besides the deep love he had come to develop for Algonquin Park, Tom Thomson was beginning to show an eagerness to depict areas beyond the park and explore other northern subjects.

Jackson suggested Tom Thomson would have travelled even further north, just as the other members of the Group of Seven eventually did.

On July 8,1917, Tom Thomson disappeared during a canoeing trip on Canoe Lake.

Tom Thomson produced nearly all of his works between 1912 and 1917.

Tom Thomson's artwork is typically divided into two bodies: the first are the small oil sketches on wood panels, of which there are around 400, and the second is of around 50 larger works on canvas.

Mark Robinson later recounted that Tom Thomson usually had a particular motif he wanted to depict before going into nature to find a comparison.

The transition from small to large required a reinvention or elaboration of the original details; by comparing sketches with their respective canvases, one can see the changes Tom Thomson made in colour, detail and background textural patterns.

Tom Thomson's painting style and the atmosphere, colours and forms of his work influenced the work of his colleagues and friends, especially Jackson, Lismer, MacDonald, Harris and Carmichael.

Tom Thomson had a great enthusiasm for trees and worked to capture their forms, their surrounding locations, and the effect of the seasons on them.

Tom Thomson normally depicted trees as amalgamated masses, giving "form structure and colour by dragging paint in bold strokes over an underlying tone".

Tom Thomson's enthusiasm is especially apparent in an anecdote from Ernest Freure, who invited Thomson to camp on an island on Georgian Bay:.

Tom Thomson wrote that this painting had "more emotion and feeling than any other of [Thomson's] canvases".

Tom Thomson was preoccupied with capturing the sky, especially near the end of his career from 1915 onward.

MacCallum recalled that Tom Thomson often spent his nights lying in his canoe in the middle of the lake, stargazing and avoiding mosquitoes.

Mark Robinson recounted that Tom Thomson stood and contemplated the aurora for an extended period of time before going back into his cabin to paint by lamplight.

Tom Thomson sometimes completed nocturnes this way, going back and forth between painting indoors and looking at the subject outside until he completed the sketch.

Tom Thomson often painted the machinery left behind by lumber companies; Lismer, MacDonald and he were especially drawn to the subject.

Around 1916, Tom Thomson followed the drive of logs down the Madawaska River, painting the subject in The Drive.

Tom Thomson described Figure of a Lady, Laura differently, interpreting it as a tender work, "well-designed and plainly expressed, this loving picture is so secure in intention that it survives, indeed triumphs, over the severe cracking of the paint".

Tom Thomson still stands as the Canadian painter, harsh, brilliant, brittle, uncouth, not only most Canadian but most creative.

In 2004, another historical marker honouring Tom Thomson was moved from its previous location near the centre of Leith to the graveyard in which he is buried.

Tom Thomson has often been remembered as an expert canoeist, though David Silcox has argued that this image is romanticized.

Tom Thomson had a deep love of fishing for his entire life, so much so that his reputation through Algonquin Park was equally divided between art and angling.