Franklin Carmichael (Franklin Carmichael)

Franklin Carmichael

Artist.  He was one of the original members (and youngest) of the Group of Seven, a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933 that also included Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley.  His artistic talent was so evident at an early age that his mother enrolled him in music and art lessons.  Growing up, he worked in his father’s shop as a carriage striper where he practiced his design, drawing, and coloring skills.  In 1911 he came to Toronto, Ontario, Canada and studied are at the Central Technical School and the Ontario College of Art.  The same year he obtained a job working as an apprentice for Grip Ltd. where he met and worked with J.E.H. MacDonald, who was the company’s head designer.  He then teamed with artist Tom Thomson and other painters who were training to become serious artists, joining them on weekend sketching trips. From 1913 to 1914 he resided in Antwerp, Belgium where he studied painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but due to the outbreak of World War I he returned to Toronto.  He was greatly influenced by Tom Thomson and shared space with him at the Studio Building in Toronto in 1914.  In 1925 he, along with A.J. Casson and F.H. Brigden, founded the Ontario Society of Painters in Watercolor as well as the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933, in which several members of the Group would also join.  In 1926 he won a silver medal at the Sesqui-centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for his art exhibit.  From 1932 until his death in 1945 he was a distinguished teacher at the Ontraio College of Art in Toronto.  In 1935 he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy and became a full academician in 1938.  He was found dead in his automobile in Toronto, Canada, shortly after leaving his work.  He was 55 years old. (bio by: William Bjornstad)  Family links:  Spouse:  Ada Went Carmichael (1891 – 1974)*  Children:  Mary Franklin Carmichael Mastin (1921 – 2012)* *Calculated relationship

Born

  • May, 04, 1890
  • Canada

Died

  • October, 10, 1945
  • Canada

Cemetery

  • Saint Andrews and Saint James Cemetery
  • Ontario
  • Canada

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