As the Varley Gallery celebrates its 10th anniversary, a new show focuses attention on Frederick Varley’s work as a master portraitist

UNIONVILLE – Depending on your perspective, when you think of the work of the Group of Seven, you likely think of evocative Canadian landscapes and the group’s role as pioneers of a new, Canadian school of art.

A new exhibition sheds light on a different aspect of Group member Frederick Varley’s work – his portraits. Portraits Into the Light brings together 87 of his works for the first time at the Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham, May 25 to Sept. 3. It is part of the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Varley Gallery.

In addition to his landscape paintings, Varley also focused much of his time on portraits and is considered a master portraitist with a profound understanding and talent for portraying the subtle secrets of the human face.

The exhibition examines Varley’s place and role in the history of portrait painting in Canada and will also include some selected portraits painted by other members from the Group of Seven, Varley’s friends and students as well as other portrait painters who were his contemporaries. The inclusion of works by other Canadian portrait artists helps present a picture of the changing interest in portrait commissions in Canada from the 1920s to the early 1960s and positions Varley within his cultural milieu and a certain social, political and intellectual climate in Canada during his career.

The exhibition includes oral histories collected from Varley’s descendents, friends, former models and students from across Canada.

“It’s been exciting researching information about the portrait sitters,” says Katerina Atanassova, curator and program co-ordinator at the Varley Art Gallery of Markham. “There is the gypsy woman. He painted her several times. There’s one in the National Gallery (which is being borrowed for this show) and another in private hands (also included). She wasn’t a gypsy at all, but an English woman who came here in 1912.

“Varley admired the work of (British portrait painter) Augustus John who liked the free spirited attitude of gypsies, which was reflected in his work.”

A closer look at Varley’s portraits shows that he didn’t include much detail in the background preferring to focus on the subject.

“He was more interested in the image of the female, and there is a sensual air of eroticism around them,” says Atanassova, of many of these portraits painted in 1930s and ‘40s.

Another woman featured in his portraits included Erica Leach of British Columbia. (Varley lived in B.C. with his wife and children for a number of years in the 1930s before moving back to Toronto.) “Through this portrait we can see how he was influenced by British Columbia and we look at nature through her eyes.”

Another wonderful portrait in the exhibition is of Florence Deacon, who he painted in the 1960s. “You can see the essence of the sitter in the portrait. He really captured the individual in his work.”

Another aspect to Varley’s work is his use of colour. “He painted people in different colours as he saw them, applying colours that had spiritual power. For example, a lover was painted in green because that’s how he saw her. Many of the portraits painted in the 1940s used muddy browns and greens, reflective of the war period,” says Atanassova.

Born in Sheffield, Jan. 2, 1881, he studied at the Sheffield School of Art and at the Koninklijk Akademie voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. He began working as an illustrator and teacher in Sheffield, where he became friends with Arthur Lismer. Lismer emigrated to Canada in 1911 and in 1912 encouraged Varley to move there. Through him, Varley found work in Toronto as an illustrator and met Tom Thomson as well as the painters who later banded together as the Group of Seven.

He and Lismer joined Thomson and A. Y. Jackson on a sketching trip to Algonquin Provincial Park in the autumn of 1914. Varley wrote at the time of their shared desire to rid themselves of preconceived ideas, so as to convey nature in all its greatness just as they found it. He also travelled to the Arctic in 1938, fulfilling a dream to see the north.

“He saw the landscape around him as such a revelation,” says Atanassova. “He painted the northern lights and the huge spaces. He painted scenes from the north from memory for two years afterward.”

In February 1918, Varley was appointed to the War Art program of the Canadian War Records and was sent to England, where he joined Jackson, who was also there painting the war. Varley was in France during the last two months of the war and again in early 1919, returning that summer to Canada.

“Varley’s war portraits were praised in the press at the time and he was singled out as one of the best artists of the time,” says Atanassova.

In addition to oil paintings, watercolours and drawings by Varley, the permanent Varley Gallery collection also includes works by J.E.H. MacDonald, J.W Morrice and David Milne. The collection is in a large part due to Kathleen Gormley McKay, the artist’s friend and benefactor. He lived the last 12 years of his life at the home of McKay and her husband. When he died in 1969, he left the copyright of his work to her.

The historic, recently restored home, is open to the public as the Kathleen McKay/ Salem Eckhardt house, located on Main Street in Unionville. It dates from the 1840s. In his studio on the lower level of the house, Varley created various portraits and landscapes inspired by the surrounding area.

Varley, who died Sept. 8, 1969, is one of six members of the Group of Seven – along with Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, A.J. Casson and A.Y. Jackson – who are buried in a small cemetery on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, along with gallery co-founder Robert McMichael.