New eyes, new views

In France at the end of the century, new currents in art were emerging that would profoundly affect Canadian landscape painting. Spring Landscape, Arthabaska  ^E (1921) by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté shows how deeply he had been influenced by the impressionists during his studies in France. Maurice Cullen and James Morrice were also among the earliest Canadian painters to portray the Canadian landscape in impressionistic terms.

These artists exerted a vital influence on the development of the best known community of Canadian artists – the Group of Seven. Convinced of the importance of a distinctive Canadian art in the development of the nation, they looked to landscapes, and in particular the northern wilderness. "The great purpose of landscape art," said the Group in 1919, "is to make us at home in our own country." ¹ The North was then seen as a symbol of the Canadian identity, representative of the rugged determination that had made the country great.

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