The Mystical North

The Group of Seven (1920-1933), consisting of painters J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, Franz Johnson, Arthur Lismer, Frank Carmicheal, F.H. Varley and A.Y. Jackson, went a longway to promote the Canadian landscape into an icon of national identity. Within this tradition, they and other artists such as Maurice Cullen coined the mystical north much in the same way as the scadinavian painters showing work in the U.S.

Mount Robson from the Northeast by Lawren Harris

Most of the Group of Seven's activity happened in the Toronto region in Ontario. Just a smidge earlier in Quebec, another mystical north phenomenon took place, this one litterary.

The novel Maria Chapdelaine (published in 1916 in Montreal) would define Quebec Litterature for decades to come, and still has a very real impact today. It tells the story of a young French Canadian girl from a family lodged deep in the woods who has to chose her fate by chosing a husband. After the death of her love François Paradis (represented below) in a snowstorm and that of her mother by illness, she chooses Eutrope Gagnon, a typical tough land-working Quebecer over Lorrenzo Suprenant, a material-man from the metropolitan United States.

François Paradis in the Blizzard by Clarence Gagnon

Both the Group of Seven and Maria Chapdelaine, as you can see, embody the robust idea of the mystical north. French and English Canada, although far from reconciled at this point, were artistically speaking the same language. And that's kind of nice.