,
A. Y. Jackson,
Lawren Harris, Fairley,
Frank Johnston (artist), Arthur Lismer, and
J. E. H. MacDonald Lismer returned to Toronto in 1919 when he was appointed vice-principal of the Ontario College of Art. With the collaboration of four artists at Grip where Lismer had previously worked, he helped found the
Group of Seven, whose work contributed to the process of giving Canada a distinctive national voice in painting. He also worked with the cadre at
Grip Ltd. Arthur Lismer's style was influenced by his pre-Canadian experience (primarily in
Antwerp), where he found the
Barbizon and
Post-Impressionist movements a key inspiration. Collaborating with the group of artists who would, in 1920, become the Group of Seven, Lismer exhibited the characteristic post-impressionist style, and spiritual connection with the landscape that would embody that group's work. Like the other members of the
Group of Seven many of his works began as small
en plein air sketches in oil on hardboard. Like other members of the Group of Seven too, Lismer became a member of the
Canadian Group of Painters in 1933. During the
Centennial of the City of Toronto, in 1934, Lismer was on the Pictures Committee. His work in art education was effective; and this service to the wider community caused Lismer to become influential in ways not always achieved by his artist colleagues. For example, he started a children's art program at the
Art Gallery of Toronto, which became successful in the 1930s. In 1936, as Lismer's prominence in the field of art education involved him in international travels, he went on a one-year tour of South Africa. Together with art educator Norah McCullough, he organized art education programmes, lectured on Canadian art and gave workshops for teachers. On the trip, he painted extensively in watercolour. He moved to Montreal in 1940, as a result of being given a teaching appointment at the
Art Association of Montreal and established the MMFA School of Art and Design. He joined the
McGill School of Architecture as a sessional lecturer in 1943 at the invitation of John Bland, the School’s director, and was appointed assistant professor in 1945, retiring in 1955 at the age of seventy. Between 1940 and 1950, he travelled in the summertime to the east coast of Canada to paint. He particularly liked to paint fishermen`s gear on the docks of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. In 1951, a
retrospective exhibition of Lismer's work, originating at the
Art Gallery of Toronto, traveled in an abbreviated version to the
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the
Vancouver Art Gallery and the
University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery and may have influenced him to take his first trip to the West Coast in the summer of that year. Using Galiano Island as a base, he explored Pender and Saltspring Islands, as well as Victoria and Long Beach on Vancouver Island. Lismer died on March 23, 1969, in Montreal, Quebec, and was buried alongside other members of the original Seven on the grounds of the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection. His papers and some of his sketches are preserved in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection Archives and Library. == Awards and honours ==