Lawren Harris (1885 - 1970)

Artist Biography

The Artist Lawren Harris was born in Brantford, Ontario, in 1885, but soon moved to Toronto. After receiving an art education in Germany he returned to Canada in 1908.

Over the next few years, he met the members who would later form the Group of Seven.

A fateful trip in 1918 to Algoma sparked his interest in landscape. In 1920, the Group formed and had their first show; they would dominate Canadian art for the next 12 years.

Harris joined the Toronto Theosophical Society in 1923 and their ideas on the spiritual function of art permeated his work from then on. In 1934, he moved to the United States and began pursuing abstraction.

Returning to Vancouver in 1941, he quickly became the epicenter of the west coast art community.

In 1960, a major retrospective of his work was organized, placing his abstract art alongside his earlier landscapes.

Illness marked the last years of Harris’ life, yet in 1967 he managed to take one last trip by train across the country to see the landscape he so enjoyed.

He died in 1970.