Toll Free: 1-877-265-4555 Banff 678-4456 Calgary 403-949-4141 [email protected]

Artist Directory ---Location ----Testimonials ----Rocky Mountain Art Festival --- About ACC

   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GROUP OF SEVEN


FREDERICK VARLEY

We represent the entire collection of F.H. Varley.

 

Frederick Horsman Varley

Frederick Horsman Varley
1881 - 1969

As Varley and Lismer were schoolmates, the early history of their lives is very similar.

Like Lismer, Varley was born in Sheffield, studied at the Sheffield School of Art and later, the Antwerp Academy,
in Antwerp, Belgium. At Antwerp, Varley had a reputation of being a heavy drinker and leading a rather bohemian
life. From Antwerp, he returned to London, where he almost starved trying to support himself as an illustrator.

Four years later, on his return to Yorkshire, he married and fathered two children. In 1912, Lismer once again
met up with Varley - who this time was depressed and struggling to support his family. Lismer persuaded him to
come to Canada, where he found work at Grip.
In Toronto, Varley soon became friendly with the other artists at Grip. He was often a difficult person to get along
with because of his temperamental moods and rather unconventional ways. He did, however, find a close friend
in Tom Thomson, who was like him in spirit. They went on weekend excursions, but rarely
sketched together, as Varley preferred people to trees for subject matter.

At first, Varley concentrated mainly on portraits and established himself as a painter of Toronto's elite society.
Although this brought him much needed income, he disliked painting to order, and his ways soon upset his clients. At one sitting with Vincent Massey, magnate of the Massey-Harris fortunes, the client arrived an hour late. Once he had taken his seat, Varley put down his brushes and walked away saying "You wait there. Now I'm going out for an hour."

Despite these disturbances, Varley was respected as a great painter, and when the World War One broke out,
he was sent to France as a Canadian War Artist. At this point, he did very poignant work. Perhaps his most famous
painting is entitled For What?. He returned from the war matured both as an artist and as an individual.

At this point, his interest in painting the Canadian north was awakened, and he began painting landscapes such as
Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay. Varley's concern with the world of
feelings and emotions was always relayed through his work.

__________________________________________


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 (Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts). It was here that Varley was married (1908) and fathered two children. When long time friend Arthur Lismer arrived in England for his own wedding, he encouraged Varley to move to Canada. He and his family packed up and moved to Ontario, and it wasn't long before he began to work at Grip Ltd..

During this time he met Tom Thomson - and influential and unofficial member of the group of seven. Together they began to paint many landscapes of Northern Ontario. In 1919, after First World War, Varley went to France as an 'overseas artist' and painted many scenes depicting battlefields and cemeteries. Like all men who have seen war or are involved in war, he was deeply disturbed by what he experienced and his work reflected this. He served in the First World War and painted scenes of combat from his experiences of the time. He was 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."
— Fred Varley

His and A.Y. Jackson's contribution in the war influenced work in the Group of Seven. They purposely painted
Canadian wilderness that had been damaged by fire or harsh climates. His major contribution to art, however,
was for his work with the Group of Seven. He and Lawren Harris were the only members of the group to paint
portraits. He died in Toronto in 1969 In Markham, Ontario, the Varley Art Gallery and
Fred Varley Drive is named after him.

__________________________________________

When Fred Varley arrived in Vancouver in September of 1926, he was one of Canada's leading portraitists and a landscape artist of conviction and power. Born in England in 1881, Varley trained in his native Sheffield and at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. He emigrated to Canada in 1912, becoming a distinguished war artist during World War I and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Although he came to Vancouver to take up a job at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Emily Carr College of Art and Design), it was the landscape of British Columbia that was to have a profound effect on his life and art.

Varley, in common with most Post-Impressionist artists, believed in addressing the landscape directly, and he found a rich source of inspiration at his doorstep. A keen hiker, he sketched in the coastal mountains near Vancouver, developing the lush vegetation, rugged terrain and effects of cloud and sun as subjects. In oil sketches such as Mountain Vista, Dawn, and Blue Ridge, Upper Lynn, all executed in the period 1929-1932, Varley moved beyond immediate representations of the landscape to images which suggest his own spiritual journey. In its audacious lack of definition in the middle ground and remarkable sensitivity to colour with an extremely close harmonic range, Dawn recalls the landscape images of "the Chinese of the 11th and 12th century," the only artists whom Varley felt had "ever interpreted the spirit of such a country." Where a sketch such as Blue Ridge, Upper Lyn, with its rude, fire-scarred stumps, recalls example of Lawren Harris, it is equally evocative of the strong patterns of Chinese calligraphy. Yet it is Varley's own composition in its romantic vitality and sense of rebirth. The engagement with the West Coast landscape radically changed Varley's approach to composition and enriched his palette. This willingness to change, to adjust his assumptions and expand his work from a variety of sources, made Varley an excellent teacher. He strongly influenced a number of local artists—notably Charles Scott, W.P. Weston and Jock Macdonald—as well as many students.

Varley also matured and grew as a portraitist while working in Vancouver. From 1930 to 1936, his principal model was the young artist Vera Weatherbie, and his close relationship with her inspired a series of portrait images unrivaled in Canadian art. Although the Vancouver Art Gallery does not possess a portrait of Vera, its Portrait of Herold Mortimer Lamb, (c.1930) is a fine example of Varley's skills in the genre. The image is deceptively casual, almost like a snapshot, with the figure slightly a central. Although the background and torso are richly painted, our attention is concentrated on the head through the use of colour, light and shade, and the more precise application of paint. (Colour is particularly significant in that Varley believed that each of us has a coloured "aura" which reflects our psychological state.)

Sadly, Varley's artistic success was not matched by financial success while he was in Vancouver. The Depression had meant a reduction in his salary at the art school and he and his colleague, Jock Macdonald, left in protest. In 1933, they started a new school, the B.C. College of the Arts, with the assistance of Harry Tauber, Beatrice Lennie and others, but this ended in financial disaster after only two years. In 1937, Varley left Vancouver, closing an important chapter in his life. Although British Columbia and its landscape remained an important reference for him, Varley was never to live in the province again nor was he again to enjoy such a sustained period of creativity. The remainder of his career was spent in Ontario, with visits to the Arctic in 1938 and British Columbia in the 1950s. He died near Toronto in 1969.



Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay 1921
oil on canvas
132.6 x 162.8 cm
Purchased 1921
National Gallery of Canada

CLICK HERE OR THE IMAGE TO VIEW F. H. VARLEY'S ART

Frederick Varley Stormy Weather Georgian Bay

 

Art Country Canada
Rocky Mountain Art Gallery
729 Main Street
Canmore , Alberta
T1W 2B2

 

Toll Free 1-877-265-4555 ---- ---- Website www.artcountrycanada.com

BANFF NATIONAL PARK

Send mail to ART COUNTRY CANADA with questions or comments about this web site.
© Art Country Canada 2022. All Rights Reserved

Calgary 403-949-4141
Banff 403-678-4456


ARTIST DIRECTORY

Join Our Emailing List...
Receive info on new releases.
E-mail addresses are never shared.
Opt out anytime

 

Subscribe to our newsletter