Frederick Horsman Varley, also known as Fred Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969), was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven artists.

Varley was born in Sheffield, England in 1881 and studied art in Sheffield and in Belgium. He came to Canada in 1912 on the advice of another Sheffield native (and future Group of Seven member), Arthur Lismer, and found work at the Grip Ltd. design firm in Toronto, Ontario. Beginning in January 1918, he served in the First World War and painted scenes of combat from his experiences of the time. Though enthusiastic to travel to France as a war artist, he became deeply disturbed by what he saw: "We’d be healthier to forget [the war], and that we never can. We are forever tainted with its abortiveness and its cruel drama."^[1] Varley's Some Day the People Will Return, shown at the Burlington House in London and at the Canadian War Memorials Exhibition, is a large canvas depicting a war-ravaged cemetery, suggestive that even the dead cannot escape the destruction.^[2]

His and A.Y. Jackson's contribution in the war influenced work in the Group of Seven. They chose to paint Canadian wilderness that had been damaged by fire or harsh climates. Varley's major contribution to art is his work with the Group of Seven. He and Lawren Harris were the only members of the group to paint portraits. In 1954, along with a handful of artists including Eric Aldwinckle, he visited the Soviet Union on the first cultural exchange of the Cold War.

He died in Toronto in 1969. In Markham, Ontario, the Varley Art Gallery and Fred Varley Drive is named after him.

[edit] See also

• Group of Seven
• Military art
• Tom Thomson

[edit] References

• Davis, Ann (1992). The logic of ecstasy: Canadian mystical painting, 1920–1940. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0802068618

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery
• Frederick Varley at artcyclopedia.com
• CBC Digital Archives - The Group of Seven: Painters in the Wilderness
• Watch the NFB documentary Varley

v • d • e Group of Seven Original members Franklin Carmichael · Lawren Harris · A. Y. Jackson · Frank Johnston · Arthur Lismer · J. E. H. MacDonald · Frederick Varley Other members A. J. Casson · Edwin Holgate · LeMoine Fitzgerald See also Tom Thomson · Emily Carr · Canadian Group of Painters · The Studio Building · Grip Ltd.