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Wed October 195 rhomson painter and legend THE M Id somewhat out of place He was an man but capable of clings bib art sometimes left him until he an artistic goal cap exact color an exact Some of the most insighth into Thomson quick pen of the wit of the Group ho captured Thomson in sketches was last seen alive on on of July a dull a brisk northeasterly was paddling south on to fish he had said Gill Lake or lea Lake lift and work captured of Canadians his death was to raise or generations from witness but in the main there is with tht following facts 11 upturned canoe was an American cottager tcher and his sister upturned was canoe Thomsons was for Thomson was friends s body was found islands which he had and was towed to a and still lying in the tethered to a tree to coroner coroner located more than 100 miles away had not arrived and Thomson s body was examined by a doctor vacationing in Canoe Lake Sixteen or turns of fishing line found around the left ankle There was a wound on thr left temple Thomson was buried later that day in a small graveyard near the west shore of the lake which contained other graves July 18 an undertaker arrived with orders from Thomson s family to exhume the body and ship it home Unassisted completed his task between 8 m and midnight Jul 19 a casket said to contain the artist body was shipped to Owen Sound for a family service the casket was buried in the family plot at Leith Ontario The church record notes Talented ind with many friends and no enemies a mystery of Thomson friends could accept that the skilled woodsman and swimmer could have fallen from his and drowned on a reasonably calm day and within a few vards of shore No one could explain the wound nor the fishing cora around his ankle The night before his death Thomson had argued with Martin Bletcher about the progress of World War I who apparently spent long periods m Canada to evade serving in the S forces may also have had an interest in Winnie Traynor a Canoe Lake resident to whom CANADIAN COLLECTION Thomson may have been Theories about his deilh for these and other reisers have been many Nor hue the years lessened interest in the One theory widely held is that Thomson was murdered Another that he was struck by not so uncommon an accident as might be supposed Other theories include the views of that he faked his own death and travelled to the US join the armed forces after being unable to join in Canada Over the yeirs there was also a belief it Thomson body had never been removed from the Park and the doubts were strong In a small group led by Toronto judge William T Little one of the best known of Thomson and investigators located the gruvesite in a pine grove on the west shore of Canoe Lake In it they found a skeleton The skull showed a wound 1orcnsit scientists however said the body was that of an Indian or a half breed but many questions were left unanswered and doubts about the final resting place of the artist remain to this day And over the years the legend lias gtown by reports of parlies having seen Ihonisim raised my volte and called and culled one womun wrote about sunset encounUr but Ihci was no re Tor even as wt looked the canoe and its pad dler without warning or sound vanished Into nothingness and on Hit lake re only our lout and the shrieking of loon llioms in has Ik si as s most important artist Whnttvtr Hit may decide his work tiieie Ik itle doubt tint lhomsons was a major influinet on his ft lends and col It who Croup of three yt his death whose work to this day Is a major force In art In the three years when Thomson art was at its peak hi ved in astonishing body of re were hut small oil panels numbered into the hundreds Of these the largest single body than 0 are a pint of the an oil ion at KlunbiiiL just ninth of Ioronto His work hangs among that of his fi tends and colli tin roup f Seven and other in mislirs such as Milne and tht magnificent art of s Indian and Inuil Hie work of these artists are in itie illy blended with the sur rounding hills the glacial valley the Century old hind hewn timbers native granite huge expanses of window area intimately link moic than galleries with the landscape that provided the Canadian masters with their aspiration In the last years of his life the Collection was the home of A Y Jackson a founding member of the group and friend of Thomson Among the thousand and more treasures of the Collection the small oil panel with the assuming title Islands Canoe Lake will for many always have a special meaning McMichael Canadian Collection housed in village of Kleinburg Thirl fallen r j constructed fr hand I mhers and it stand a natural sanctuary the crest the It River valley The grandeur of nature and the creativity of people are combined dramatically at the McMichael Canadian Collection in the village of The Canadian Col loction displays some 700 works by Canada s most famous artists the historic Group of Seven and their contemporaries Closely associated with the Group of Seven was Tom Thomson who has emerged as the most legendary figure in Canadian art Thomson knew the northern wilderness intimately and por it in paint with an unrivalled spontaneity and splendour The Canadian Col lection exhibits the largest permanent display of Thomsons art to be seen anywhere The studioshack in which Thomson created many of his masterpieces has been preserved on the gallery grounds