Franklin Carmichael

(1890 – 1945) Franklin Carmichael was born in Orillia, Ontario on May 4, 1890. He worked as a carriage stripper in his father’s carriage works before coming to Toronto in 1911 to pursue his artistic ambitions. He soon found himself the associate of Tom Thomson, J.E.H. MacDonald and other commercial artists who were exploring new ways to paint the Canadian landscape. In 1913, he went to Antwerp, Belgium to study painting but returned to Toronto in 1914 with the outbreak of war. He continued to work in commercial art, and painted in his spare time. In 1920, Carmichael participated in the founding of the Group of Seven. In 1932, he was appointed Head of Graphic and Commercial Art at the Ontario College of Art. He died in Toronto in 1945.