Two Group of Seven members not buried at The McMichael Cemetery, J.E.H. MacDonald and Franklin Carmichael

A Reunion Among the Pines: Honouring J.E.H. MacDonald and Franklin Carmichael

On my recent walk through Prospect Cemetery in Toronto and St. Andrew’s and St. James’ Cemetery in Orillia, I visited the final resting places of two members of the Group of Seven — J.E.H. MacDonald and Franklin Carmichael. Though buried in different towns, they were once part of the same creative force that forever changed the landscape of Canadian art.

James Edward Hervey MacDonald — J.E.H. — was the son of an English mother and a Canadian-born father, a skilled cabinetmaker. His artistic roots took hold as a teenager in Hamilton, later blooming in Toronto where he studied art and worked alongside Tom Thomson at Grip Ltd., the design firm that became a fertile ground for Canada’s emerging artistic identity.

In 1920, with his friend Lawren Harris, MacDonald helped form the Group of Seven — an assembly of young artists determined to create a distinctly Canadian visual language through their depictions of the natural world. MacDonald died in Toronto on November 26, 1932, at the age of 59.

Franklin Carmichael, the youngest of the original group, was born in Orillia, Ontario. His artistic talents were evident early on, and his parents encouraged him with lessons in both music and art. He worked in his father’s carriage-making shop, hand-painting designs on the sides of carriages — a practice that honed his craftsmanship.

Later, Carmichael built a career as a designer and illustrator, creating promotional material for magazines and newspapers. Though he sometimes felt socially distant from other members of the Group, his paintings — especially his watercolours — hold their own as masterpieces of Canadian modernism.

After the Group of Seven disbanded in 1932, Carmichael turned to teaching, sharing his gifts at the Ontario School of Art. His life was cut short when he died in Toronto on October 24, 1945, at just 55 years old.