Sarah Milroy reviews the recent exhibition Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.
Milroy writes that "Ross King [recently] debunked the popularly held Canadian view of these artists as pioneer woodsmen-savants, revealing instead their ties to the painterly traditions of Britain, France and Holland. This well-timed exhibition thus allowed us the opportunity to reconsider their accomplishments in light of this argument, demonstrating how their passionate love of the land was married to a painterly sophistication honed in dialogue with inherited artistic traditions."