Exhibition of contemporary Canadian painting: arranged by the National Gallery of Canada.

I N T R O D U C T I O N QF all the arts in Canada, painting must be said to have developed the greatest, if not the only measure of individuality, and to have made the most progress. The historical period covered by indigenous painting of any significance is slightly less than a hundred years and the period of any a r t movement definitely Canadian or nationalistic in outlook, is not more than twenty-five. The period between these two dates was covered by the slow growth of a n academic school of painting deeply and quite naturally rooted in the a r t schools and traditions of Great Britain and the Continent, and typified by the formation of such institutions as the Royal Canadian Academy, the Ontario Society of Artists and other bodies. This traditional manner still continues and contributes heavily to the sum total of the portrait painting but progressively less to the landscape and free figure painting throughout the country. During the past twenty-five years a very distinct Canadianism has made its appearance in painting and to a smaller degree in sculp- ture and the reproductive arts. A group of young painters, mostly connected for purposes of income with commercial design, came together, drawn by similarity of artistic ideals and a healthy deter- mination to break loose from the domination of European a r t schools. I t was not long before they were penetrating such regions as the wilds of northern Ontario, the western prairies, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast which had never before been artistically ex- plored and all of which yielded fresh and characteristically Canadian material for their canvasses. Another group less united in aim developed in Montreal about the same time and perpetuated somewhat loosely and individually the ideals of the Canadian born painter James Wilson Morrice, who was then achieving distinction in Paris, having founded a character- istic style on a variety of influences among which were his first master, Henri Harpignes, and the 1870 impressionists. The Ontario group made the greater progress and fought the harder battle for recognition. The strength and originality of the painting of Tom Thomson, J. E. H. MacDonald and others brought i t such prominence t ha t it could not be ignored however much it might be misunderstood. In 1919, for greater strength and unity, the Group of Seven was formed and continued to hold vigorous and controversial exhibitions for the next thirteen years. In 1932, when