One of Canada’s best-known painters is Tom Thompson. His work in the early part of the last century created a uniquely Canadian style and has influenced painters ever since, including the equally famous Canadian “Group of Seven”.
However, his amazing paintings and the mysterious circumstances of his dissappearnce on July 8, 1917, have contributed equally to the fascination with the artist.
His work in Ontario’s Algonquin Park, focusing on the stark natural beauty of the almost virgin forests and lakes, has become legendary, and although a struggling artist from 1912 to 1917, his works now command prices in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Tom Thompson loved Algonquin where he worked as a fire ranger and guide while painting. An experienced outdoorsman he was last seen alive paddling away from a dock on Canoe Lake. Eight days later his body was found floating with a gash in the temple and copper fishing line wrapped several times around his leg.
At the time his death was ruled as “accidental drowning”, but many people have long doubted that citing Thompson expertise with a canoe, and general outdoorsman skill. The mystery is further enhanced by doubts about what became of his body and where it buried. The body was supposed to have been exhumed and moved from the local cemetery, to a family plot in Leith, Ontario but there is controversy around that as well.
An unauthorized uncovering of a body at Thompson’s “former” grave, unearthed a skull later alleged by medical officials to be that of an unknown aboriginal man. But Victoria Lywood an internationally known forensic artist commissioned to re-create a face on the skull, without knowing its provenance, drew a face with striking similarity to that of Tom Thompson.
More recently, anecdotal evidence points to an accidental death when an argument over either money, or love, or both, resulted in a Mr Fraser, postmaster and owner of Mowat Lodge, pushing or punching Thompson whose head hit a fireplace andiron as he fell.
There have been several books written about Thompson, his works and his still mysterious death, theatrical plays, documentary films.
One thing remains certain, his enduring legacy of magnificent artwork
His work in
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.