Tom Thomson: Canadian Artist
- rahunter_nf
- Red
- Dan_Ellsworth
- Red
- biogardener
- Red
- biogardener
- nlehto
- humorous_sage
- nlehto
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» rahunter_nf - Re: Re: Nice Article
In response to Re: Nice Article posted by Red:How is the weather in your part of the country. It's been overcast, rainy and windy here for 2 weeks.
It's been much the same here. As well, we've had frost some nights and a bit of the white stuff last weekend.
-- posted by rahunter_nf
» Red - Re: Re: Re: Nice Article
In response to Re: Re: Nice Article posted by rahunter_nf:Bob,
We've had the frost. A couple of mornings it was quite heavy, but no sign of the white stuff yet, thank goodness. I can certainly wait for that. 
Hope all is well with you and your family. We're busy but doing fine here.
-- posted by Red
» Dan_Ellsworth - The men . . . continued
Mary, I was glad to read about this artist, and want to highlight something you wrote: "The men ignored the rejection of their work and continued to do what they loved best."Algonquin Park was maybe 18 years ago for our family, but I remember that we saw only the most road-accessible fraction of it and were *still* impressed by its beauty, size, and wildness. I can imagine an artist getting "fired up" there, and delivering some visual reports on the place.
Thanks for visiting what has been my topic -- where I still hang out, electronically.
-- posted by Dan_Ellsworth
» Red - Re: The men . . . continued
In response to The men . . . continued posted by Dan_Ellsworth:Dan,
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Algonquin Park certainly is beautiful, especially in the fall when the foliage is at its best. It is still a wilderness area and the roads haven't changed much in 18 years. They only touch on a fraction of the park. It is one the most remote areas in Ontario. I hope that someday you are able to visit the park again.
Thanks for dropping by. It's always nice to see you. I hope you are doing well.
-- posted by Red
» biogardener - Further revelation
We now know more about Thomson's death than was originally known. No one doubts any more that it was murder, and the person implemented was someone who owed him money which Thomson tried to collect the day before he got murdered. He had a fishing line wrapped tightly around his ankles. Not possible in a fishing accident.As you know, we had the biggest ever Thomson exhibit in the Winnipeg Art Gallery last year, and I studied it for two days, because there was so much to see and learn. Right after that, I wrote the following article, illustrating it with examples of Thomson's work:
-- posted by biogardener
» Red - Re: Further revelation
In response to Further revelation posted by biogardener:Traute,
I didn't find the facts about Thomson's death when I researched the article. If they know it was someone who owed him money and that Thompson tried to collect the day before, does that mean they now know who the murderer was? I also didn't learn about the fishing line on Thompson's ankles, although there was never a doubt in my mind that he was murdered.
Thanks for keeping us updated on Thompson's demise. A mystery that should have been solved long ago.
-- posted by Red
» biogardener - New Research
This was a huge exhibition, and it covered every aspect of Thomson's life. It was here in the autumn of 2003 already, and it toured in other places. I imagine that the pictures have been sent back to their respective galleries or owners, and I don't know where all the new documentation is now.The people who put the exhibition together did their own research, going back to where it all happened, searching through records, interviewing people. I had studied Thomson extensively before the exhibit, and I, too, had no doubt that the best canoist and fisherman of the region would not drown in perfect weather. I was quite overwhelmed with the great research job. It brought to life a lot of things which are not written in books or on websites, but they are available in the documentation of the exhibit.
Yes, they know who the murderer was, and everyone at the time knew it. He had no alibi either. By the time the facts all came out, Thomson was long buried and he had no family to fight for justice for his death. In the backwoods, the authorities probably didn't want to make a fuss over a local man murdering a Toronto man. It would have put the lives of investigators in jeopardy as well.
Thomson didn't drown. He was dumped in the lake after the fact along with the canoe, making it look like a drowning, but it didn't fool anyone. There were witnesses to the altercation between Thomson and the murderer, and they talked.
If he had been the son of a prominent family, an autopsy would have been performed which would have shown that there was no water in his lungs. The murderer would have been charged and convicted. As it was, Thomson was just a seasonal worker there, i.e. a drifter, and Toronto and the law were a long ways away. No one knew that Tom's art would some day be worth millions. He wasn't even known as an artist, just as a fishing guide and park ranger.
BTW, he did a lot of drawings and paintings of the culture around the region which are never shown in books or galleries. There are more of those than of his colorful paintings.
-- posted by biogardener
» nlehto - Re: Further revelation
In response to Further revelation posted by biogardener:I have a book being published this summer 2005 called "Algonquin Elegy: Thomson's's Last Spring.Roy MacGregor in Toronto's Globe and Mail mentioned it in a column on June 1, 2005.
Was his death murder, accident or suicide?
Canadian artist Thomsonmson painted sixty-two landscapes on small wood panels during the last spring of his life—a daily record of the season’s change from winter to spring in 1917. The panels and all of his personal property were missing upon his drowning in Algonquin Park's Canoe Lake. His body was buried, following an inquest by the coroner from North Bay, who concluded the drowning was accidental. The next night, his body was exhumed late at night reburied in the family plot at Leith, Ontario. In 1956, gravesite was dug up and a skeleton was discovered in what apparently was his coffin and burial box. Medical investigators stunned the nation when they reported the body found was not thatThomson, but of a native Indian. Thomson’ family refused to allow exhumation of Leith plot.
All records of the case forwarded from Algonquin Park to the crown attorney in North Bay were reportedly missing years ago. They include a sworn statement by the examining physician, Dr. Goldwin Howland, and Park Ranger Mark Robinson's report. Perhaps, they still might be found.
Thomson's story and drowning at Canoe Lake are full of interesting characters: the park ranger still suffering from World War I wounds, the woman some believe was pregnant with Thomson’s child, the conniving owner of the Mowat Lodge on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park, Ontario, where Thomson stayed, the budding romance novelist Thomson fell in love with in Seattle and the artist’s highly accomplished but self-doubting older brother, George, who came to Algonquin Park following the drowning.
The conclusion that J. Shannon Fraser murdered over some money Thomson tried to collect the day before he was murdered came from Daphne Crombie, interviewed by a park raanger Ron Pittaway and, later, by a newspaper Roy MacGregor, in 1977. Then in her 90s, Crombie interview with Pittaway gave a rambling and garbled version of troubling events the night of July 7 confided to her in November 1917 by Fraser's wife, who had since died. It is the story of a drunken Saturday party at a cabin on Canoe Lake at which a large group of men were gathered.
“They were all tight,” she said.
Robinson noted in his journal on June 30, 1917, that he visited trains at Canoe Lake that day “and looked over 3 barrels of beer (2 ½) for Martin Blecher. Passed it as ok. It being for personal use.”
Mrs. Crombie continued, “I could start in by Annie and I having a walk, and about the letter she had read and about Winnifred’s desire to come up the following week. She said, ’Please Tom you must get a new suit because we’ll have to be married.’”
Thomson, she said, confronted Fraser over repayment of the $250 canoe loan. “Tom asked Shannon Fraser for the money that he owed him because he had to go and get a new suit. . . . Anyway, they had a fight and Shannon hit Tom, knocked him down by the fire grate, and Tom had a mark on his forehead. . . . My conception is that he took Tom’s body and put it in a canoe and dropped it in the Lake. . . . I believe that Annie helped him pack the canoe and he went off into the lake with Tom’s body, because she always helped him pack his canoe quite often.”
First, Mrs. Crombie admitted that the story was her conception. Second, none of the men present ever came forward. Third, another witness, Winnifred Trainor, said Thomson told her the alleged debt had already been paid. Fourth, Thomson died not from a head injury but drowning, according to the examining physician, Dr. Goldwin Howland, and the inquest verdict, by the coroner, Dr. Arthur E. Ranney.
Regarding the fishing line, when the floated to the surface of Canoe Lake on July 16, two passing guides, George Rowe and Lawrie Dickson, towed it over to Big Wapomeo Island and tied it to some tree roots at the shore. They probably used fishing line.
The orginal article could be corrected as follows:
John Thomson's wife was Margaret Mathison.
Tom Thomson's birth was August 4, 1877.
Whether he tried to enlist in the Boer War is unsupported by any military records.
Tom was fired from the Kennedy Brother Foundry by a foreman who said he was habitually late.
Tom did not graduate from the business school in Chatham.
I will skip ahead to 1917.
Tom drowned on July 8, 1917. He said he was headed to the Tea Lake Dam or Gills Lake not Till Lake.
Blecher's father, Martin Blecher, Sr., owned the Canoe Lake cottage in 1917.
The overturned canoe was found by Charlie Scrim on July 10 and retrieved by him and Robinson.
There is considerable controversy over whether the body actually was exhumed although the evidence suggests that the undertaker, Franklin W. Churchill, did so under the direction of Tom's brother, George Thomson.
If are you interested in my book mailto:nlehto@municable.com
-- posted by nlehto
» humorous_sage - Algonquin
I visited the Algonquin area a few decades ago and was really impressed by its beauty.Hank
-- posted by humorous_sage
» nlehto - NEW BIOGRAPHY OF CANADIAN ARTIST’S TRAGIC DROWNING IN 1917
December 1, 2005FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Neil J. Lehto
248 851-4276
nlehto@municable.com
NEW BIOGRAPHY OF CANADIAN ARTIST’S TRAGIC DROWNING IN 1917
A new biography of one of Canada’s greatest artists being published this month follows by a few days the November sale of two Tom Thomson oil on canvas works at Toronto’s Heffel Fine Art Auction, which highlights the tremendous interest in Thomson’s paintings.
South Shore of Canoe Lake sold for an apparent record $460,000. Sketch for Grey Day in the North went for $184,000. Largely unknown in the United States, Thomson’s most well-known paintings are The West Wind and The Jack Pine. One of Canada’s greatest artists, Tom Thomson, painted 62 landscapes on small wood panels during the two last months of his life -- a daily record of the season’s change from winter to spring. When he drowned in Ontario’s Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917, none of them remained among his few belongings.
His body was recovered from Canoe Lake on July 16 and hastily buried 36 hours later, exhumed late at night on July 18 and reburied by his family on July 21 in Leith, Ontario. Rumors about his mysterious drowning and doubts about the exhumation circulated ever since.
In 1956, his Canoe Lake gravesite was dug up and a skeleton discovered in what apparently was his coffin and burial box. Medical investigators stunned the nation when they reported the body found was not that of Thomson but a native Indian. Thomson’s family refused to allow exhumation of the Leith plot.
Author Neil J. Lehto’s new biography of Thomson last spring, Algonquin Elegy, investigates the many theories, rumors and myths surrounding the artist, finding new and convincing evidence, which answers what happened to the 62 paintings, whether his drowning was an accident, murder or suicide and whether his body was exhumed and moved to Leith. The 214-page book is illustrated with reproductions of the crucial letters, telegrams and old newspaper clippings upon which Lehto relies in reaching beyond theory, rumor and myth to tell Thomson’s true story. Lehto wraps his biographical reporting around a fictional character’s investigation of Thomson’s death, an unusually effective device that makes both stories even more interesting, while keeping separate fact from fiction.
Lehto is a solo attorney in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He worked his way through Wayne State University as a reporter for a Detroit area newspaper, the Daily Tribune. Following his graduation in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, he received a Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law in 1978. Until 2003, he practiced law with a large suburban Detroit law firm. Since his first trip to Ontario’s Algonquin Park thirty years ago, he has pursued the true story of Tom Thomson’s 1917 drowning in Canoe Lake.
The book will be available for purchase in the next few weeks on-line at http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/index... http://www.amazon.com, http://www.barnesandnoble.com, , http://www.booksamillion.com, http://www.borders.com, http://www.walmart.com and may be ordered at bookstores throughout the United States and Canada.
-- posted by nlehto
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