There are the group of seven and then there is the Beaver hall Group showing a number of paintings done in the thirties and exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The paintings lay in a small part of a room cordoned off to hold the better-known group of seven. One wants to see something distinctive in Canadian painting and I am afraid the muddied look on one of the Beaver Hall group paintings didn’t make my approval, it could have been less sultry perhaps or maybe I just wasn’t in a grey enough mood to see someone’s interpretation of a grey winter sky with a limited colour range on the canvas. It was purposely placed against another more distinctly painted church scene. What can say about Canadian art?

Perhaps a lot more if the guide had not sat on the first painting giving a detailed explanation where it was not due even though copies can be regarded for their excellence. The figures were way too stunted in their stance with certain figures that looked as if their faces had been stuck in with no regard to the general theme. There was a good play of light and dark and some symbolism but when you see that the contrast of light to dark on the faces was so stark, then he should have moved on to talk more about Leduc, Watson or others.

Leduc was given some credit for his portraiture and religious symbolism although if you want to read symbolism into a painting you can. There was a small oil painting of three round apples and they did not have to be compared to the holy trinity as they were. And then the fact that we were told the apples look as if they have a light emanating from within did not please me either, although I could understand the guide wanting to reveal the metaphysical from an otherwise plain oil painting. Outside of the Watson one showing a rocky river bed and bear in front of a darkened cliff and a Thompson painting, I was not very impressed. He was given the credit, as being the Constable of Canada by Orson Wilde but that did not prevent him from falling into poverty. Perhaps that was because he did want to mix with the group of seven who saw that a fresher spiritual symbolism could be found in nature and depicted in oils.