The Tom Thomson Mystery

Last updated
The Tom Thomson Mystery
The Tom Thomson Mystery.jpg
AuthorWilliam T. Little
CountryCanada
ISBN 0-07-092655-7

The Tom Thomson Mystery is a book by Canadian judge William T. Little. It was published in 1970 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Thomson is regarded by some as Canada's most famous painter. He died in July 1917, drowning in Canoe Lake in Ontario's Algonquin Park, and was buried there. Two days later, his family sent an undertaker to exhume the body and send it back for re-burial in Leith, Ontario. In October 1956, Little and some friends decided to dig up Thomson's original burial place at Canoe Lake.

The book tells the story of Thomson's life and the discovery made by Little and his friends.

Little's book is one of several that raised the Tom Thomson mystery to public prominence during the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto</span> Cemetery in Toronto, Canada

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a cemetery located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries. It was opened in November 1876 and is located north of Moore Park, a neighbourhood of Toronto. The cemetery has kilometres of drives and walking paths interspersed with fountains, statues and botanical gardens, as well as rare and distinct trees. It was originally laid out by German-born landscape architect Henry Adolph Engelhardt, inspired by the European and American garden cemeteries of the 19th century, and with influences from Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Group of Seven (artists)</span> Group of Canadian landscape painters (1920–1933)

The Group of Seven, once known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), A. Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885–1969), J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), and Frederick Varley (1881–1969). A. J. Casson (1898–1992) was invited to join in 1926, Edwin Holgate (1892–1977) became a member in 1930, and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (1890–1956) joined in 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Thomson</span> Canadian painter (1877–1917)

Thomas John Thomson was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His works consist almost entirely of landscapes, depicting trees, skies, lakes, and rivers. He used broad brush strokes and a liberal application of paint to capture the beauty and colour of the Ontario landscape. Thomson's accidental death by drowning at 39 shortly before the founding of the Group of Seven is seen as a tragedy for Canadian art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algonquin Provincial Park</span> Provincial park in Ontario, Canada

Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. Established in 1893, it is the oldest provincial park in Canada. Additions since its creation have increased the park to its current size of about 7,653 km2 (2,955 sq mi). The park is contiguous with several smaller, administratively separate provincial parks that protect important rivers in the area, resulting in a larger total protected area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achray, Ontario</span> Place in Ontario, Canada

Achray is an unincorporated place and former railway point in geographic Stratton Township in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies in northern Algonquin Provincial Park on the northern shore of Grand Lake, part of the Barron River system, and functions today as a campground site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawren Harris</span> Canadian painter (1885–1970)

Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Carmichael</span> 20th-century Canadian artist

Franklin Carmichael was a Canadian artist and member of the Group of Seven. Though he was primarily famous for his use of watercolours, he also used oil paints, charcoal and other media to capture the Ontario landscapes. Besides his work as a painter, he worked as a designer and illustrator, creating promotional brochures, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and designing books. Near the end of his life, Carmichael taught in the Graphic Design and Commercial Art Department at the Ontario College of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. E. H. MacDonald</span>

James Edward Hervey MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-Canadian artist, best known as a member of the Group of Seven who asserted a distinct national identity combined with a common heritage stemming from early modernism in Europe in the early twentieth century. He was the father of the illustrator, graphic artist and designer Thoreau MacDonald.

<i>The Jack Pine</i> Painting by Tom Thomson

The Jack Pine is a well-known oil painting by Canadian artist Tom Thomson. A representation of the most broadly distributed pine species in Canada, it is considered an iconic image of the country's landscape, and is one of the country's most widely recognized and reproduced artworks.

William Cruikshank was a British painter and the grand-nephew of George Cruikshank. He studied art at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, at the Royal Academy School in London with Frederic Leighton and John Everett Millais, and in Paris at the Atelier Yvon. His last studies were interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Bourinot</span> Canadian poet

Arthur Stanley Bourinot, SM was a Canadian lawyer, scholar, and poet. "His carefully researched historical and biographical books and articles on Canadian poets, such as Duncan Campbell Scott, Archibald Lampman, George Frederick Cameron, William E. Marshall and Charles Sangster, have made a valuable contribution to the field of literary criticism in Canada."

Ryerson Press was a Canadian book publishing company, active from 1919 to 1970. First established by the Methodist Book Room, a division of the Methodist Church of Canada, and operated by the United Church Publishing House after the Methodist Church's merger into the United Church of Canada in 1925, the imprint specialized in historical, educational and literary titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. W. Beatty</span> Canadian painter (1869–1941)

J. W. Beatty (1869–1941) was a Canadian painter who was a forerunner in the movement which became the Group of Seven in 1920.

Roy MacGregor is a Canadian author of fiction and non-fiction.

<i>Northern River</i> (painting) Painting by Tom Thomson

Northern River is a 1914–15 oil painting by Canadian painter Tom Thomson. The work was inspired by a sketch completed over the same winter, possibly in Algonquin Park. The completed canvas is large, measuring 115.1 × 102.0 cm. Painted over the winter of 1914–15, it was completed in Thomson's shack behind the Studio Building in Toronto. The painting was produced as he was entering the peak of his short art career and is considered one of his most notable works. In 1915 it was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and has remained in the collection ever since.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death and legacy of Tom Thomson</span> The death and legacy of Canadian artist Tom Thomson

The death of Tom Thomson, the Canadian painter, occurred on 8 July 1917, on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park in Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada. After Thomson drowned in the water, his upturned canoe was discovered later that afternoon and his body eight days later. Many theories regarding Thomson's death—including that he was murdered or committed suicide—have become popular in the years since his death, though these ideas lack any substantiation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artistic development of Tom Thomson</span> The artistic development of Tom Thomson

Tom Thomson (1877–1917) was a Canadian painter from the beginning of the 20th century. Beginning from humble roots, his development as a career painter was meteoric, only pursuing it seriously in the final years of his life. He became one of the foremost figures in Canadian art, leaving behind around 400 small oil sketches and around fifty larger works on canvas.

<i>Spring Ice</i> Painting by Tom Thomson

Spring Ice is a 1915–16 oil painting by Canadian painter Tom Thomson. The work was inspired by a sketch completed on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. The completed canvas is large, measuring 72.0 × 102.3 cm. Painted over the winter of 1915–16, it was completed in Thomson's shack behind the Studio Building in Toronto. The painting was produced as he was in the peak of his short art career and is considered one of his most notable works. While exhibited in a show put on by the Ontario Society of Artists, the work received mixed to positive reviews. In 1916 it was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and has remained in the collection ever since.

<i>Drowned Land</i> 1912 oil sketch by Canadian painter Tom Thomson

Drowned Land is a 1912 oil sketch by the 20th-century Canadian painter Tom Thomson.

Richard Gorman was a Canadian painter and printmaker. He was known for his magnetic prints which he created using ink covered ball-bearings manipulated with a magnet held behind the drawing board and for his large paintings in which he broadly handled paint.

References