Group of Seven National Historic Event

The Group of Seven was designated a national historic event in 1974.

Historical importance: first exhibited in 1920, Canadian landscape painters.

Commemorative plaque: 10365 Islington Avenue, Kleinburg, Ontario^{Footnote 1}

The Group of Seven

Coming together in Toronto, Frank Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and F.H. Varley set out to give Canada a truly national form of painting. Spurred on by an association with Tom Thomson (1877-1917), these artists sought inspiration initially in the rugged northern Ontario landscape. They later expanded their horizons, making all of Canada their territory. Their first exhibition as a group, in 1920, was controversial, but their bold style attracted attention to Canadian painting and eventually won an enthusiastic following.