96 Years Ago Tom Thomson Had His Most Prolific Painting Period

The original Gravenhurst High School - Fred Schulz Collection

Who murdered Tom Thomson?

Ninety six years since artist’s tragic death on Algonquin’s Canoe Lake

     It’s only the first of April but there are clear signs here at Canoe Lake, that the Algonquin landscape is ready to burst with spring rejuvenation. The sunglow off the remaining snow-crust is blinding. The sound of tiny cataracts of run-off water is a pleasant harbinger of spring, as are the bird calls and the sign of fresh animal tracks in the decaying mantle of winter snow. I wonder if Tom Thomson might have found this re-emergence of the lakeland worthy of study? A sketch possibly.

     In the spring of 1917 he arrived at Canoe Lake, to watch the spring season unfold across the Algonquin Lakes. He found it an interesting season, the summer being too green and lush to give him the color contrasts he found with a barren forest, and a rugged, craggy lakeshore. The spring sky. The powerful storms that etched across this Canadian landscape. He had eager expectations for the spray of vivid colors, associated with the first wildflowers to arrive in the warming soils of the open areas, on the fringe of the forest and bordering the grassy lowlands.

     Ninety-six years ago Tom Thomson would have touched this spring released water, and witnessed this heavenly sky backdropping the rich hue of evergreen, the grey of rock against the rising pulse of dark current, tumbling deeply within this legendary lake. I can’t help but to crouch now, out of respect, to touch this water along the beach, just as Thomson would have, when launching his canoe nine decades ago this year.

     The purpose of this blog series is to address what I believe has been an injustice to the memory of a great Canadian artist. When I began my inaugural investigation into his death, I attempted to research my way past the accepted conclusion.......to discover something, anything, a trivial detail overlooked by countless others that would help disprove the theory Thomson had drowned accidentally. Most of the reference books about Thomson have been steadfast regarding the circumstances surrounding his death. Accidental. I have felt it was somewhat insulting to assume that Thomson, on an otherwise clear, still day, could have drowned by misadventure, within calling distance of shore. To suggest, as some have written, Thomson was drunk when he left shore, doesn’t fit his profile that summer. As for him having a pee mid-lake, and subsequently toppling out of the canoe, this is on the very edge of ridiculous. There were cottages and folks all over that shoreline, certainly at the time he was alleged to have traversed the lake, so relieving himself wasn’t within character for such a chap known widely as a gentleman.

Bandied about even up to the mid 1990's, is this unfounded, grasping-at-straws assessment, Thomson had toppled out of his canoe while urinating clumsily mid-lake,....... hitting his head on the gunnel of the vessel on the way down into the lake. It is also alleged he was more than a little tipsy before relieving himself, due to the flask of alcoholic beverage he consumed earlier. Most authors stick to the results of the coroner’s report of 1917, which is, in my opinion, a breach of investigative protocol because any one who has studied the events surrounding, and during the inquest, realize justice was not entirely served. So those Thomson biographers who side with accepted opinion, decided to conclude that death was indeed due to drowning, foolishly agreeing with an incomplete inquest.

     Blind acceptance of the inquest’s ruling by Thomson researchers to this point, is evidence these authors have dismissed his death as being of little overall importance to the study of his contribution to Canadian art. A few intrepid Thomson admirers have thought enough of the artist to commit to a full and complete investigation; just as Judge William Little detailed in his book, "The Tom Thomson Mystery," and Blodwen Davies before him, in a biography she was writing on Thomson (during the late 1920’s, published in early 1930). Both believed the inquest was shallow and information about the days leading up to his death, and conflicts with area residents, was negligently withheld during the official hearing. The coroner did not have all the information required, to without doubt, attribute Thomson’s death to drowning.

     Here’s what’s wrong with acceptance of fact as presented. Canadian art history has been influenced by the mystery from the moment Thomson’s body was found in July 1917, and word initially spread around the Canoe Lake community about the loss of their so-called friend. Even then his mates and even a few enemies pondered the cause of death, and no one (except the Coroner later) believed Thomson drowned. They knew him to be, at the very least, a competent canoeist, who could handle adverse conditions and even an occasional topple-over into the lake. During the day he was supposed to have disappeared, it’s unlikely he would have been under the influence of alcohol, and because it doesn’t take long to get from shore to shore, Thomson had very little reason to relieve himself awkwardly balanced in mid lake, where his body was eventually found.

     When the coroner that July did come to the hamlet of Mowat, on Canoe Lake, to conduct the specially called inquest, the examiner discovered Thomson had been buried earlier that same day in the local hillside cemetery. No body! Just the observations made by a doctor, not a pathologist, who originally spotted the floating body, and who later conducted an impromptu lakeshore examination. The body was never taken to dryland for proper examination and in fact, he was prepared for burial, including embalming, right on the island shore where his body had been hauled-upon the day before. So for every author-historian-biographer who has decided to adopt the accidental death theory, and include it for the ongoing distortion of historical record, this is the reason a wrong must be corrected. 

Thomson did not die as a result of drowning.

     Thomson while an emerging talent on the Canadian art scene, by the summer of 1917, was also embroiled in a few personal conflicts, which some well known authors believed could have inspired thoughts of suicide, although this has received thin investigation over the decades. It has also been revealed by an historian in Washington State that Thomson, during his stay there with a brother working in the commercial art discipline, may have generated a child with a prominent Seattle family, and then been forced to make a hasty retreat back to Canada. It has long been alleged that he had another child on the way with a local Huntsville woman, and there is evidence he was preparing to enter into marriage to make the situation right. It is said he reserved an Algonquin cabin as a honeymoon retreat for later that summer season of 1917. It is also known Thomson was in some financial peril despite the fact some of his work was selling and he was living frugally in Mowat. There are a few biographer "busy-bodies" who believe Thomson was owed money and that tension was building over several weeks that spring season, as he made demands for re-payment.

     There are literally hundreds of details concerning Thomson’s final days and demise that require forensic scrutiny. After reading every book, article and document I can find about Thomson, and his painting during the spring and early summer of 1917, one can ascertain that he was both content and prolific at his art work, producing many paintboards, and feeling satisfied he had captured the spring re-awakening in Algonquin.

     What is also well established is that he could be argumentative and drinking possibly too much for his own good. The evening before he is said to have drowned, he had a serious dispute with an American cottager, Martin Bletcher Jr., which ended with a modest amount of pushing but no actual fisticuffs. Bletcher was considered a suspect in Thomson’s death shortly after the body was recovered. First of all, those who were in company with the artist and Bletcher the night of the argument, remembered the cottager telling Thomson to stay out of his way, if he knew what was good for him. Secondly, it was Bletcher who first spotted Thomson’s over-turned canoe but did not report it immediately to Algonquin authorities. He claimed that it was not uncommon to find overturned canoes in the lake, many having accidentally drifted away from encampments. It was pointed out to Bletcher, by some of his neighbors that only Thomson’s boat had that particular hue of (oil paint) green attached, noting that no one could have mistaken the overturned canoe for anyone else’s property.

     It was also rumored about difficulties manifesting between Mowat hotelier Shannon Fraser and Thomson, who resided frequently at the hotel, regarding money owed. I’ve heard both sides, one that Thomson owed Fraser money for lodging and supplies and had refused to make restitution. Other sources have explained it was actually Fraser who owed Thomson, and that because the artist needed the money to proceed with the wedding that fall, the requests for payment became more rigorous. Today it is pretty much accepted thought amongst those who disbelieve the drowning scenario, (despite the accidental death theory mainstream authors continue to publish as fact) that it was Fraser who killed Thomson. Not on purpose, but the end result of a brief, violent skirmish, when Thomson fell in the midst of physical conflict, and struck his head on a stone hearth. As "dead-men-tell-no-tales," Fraser decided to dispose of the body and make it appear as if the artist’s disappearance was the result of poor canoemanship.

     A rumor of a death-bed statement by a friend of the Frasers, of Mowat, claimed that Shannon and his wife, in the wee hours of the summer night, dragged the artist’s unconscious body out on the dock and rolled him into the canoe. They then tied their rowboat to the canoe and propelled themselves through the darkness toward a mid-lake target-site to purposely overturn the canoe. What is revealed by William Little’s book is how inept the Frasers were in replicating the canoeing habits Thomson employed, including how one paddle was awkwardly lashed to the thwart and a second paddle that was never found despite an extensive search.

     Within only moments of seeing the evidence and visible tampering, and then the condition of the artist’s body, the guides who attended Thomson did not believe it was in any way accidental drowning. Consider the fact that the impromptu autopsy on the island shore, determined that Thomson was still bleeding when he went into the water, not being quite dead when unceremoniously abandoned to the bottom of Canoe Lake.

     The mission of this multi-year research project regarding the death of Tom Thomson, is not to sensationalize his death. It is however, to refute completely the idea the artist was the victim of accidental death. In this the 92nd anniversary year of his demise, it is a fitting time to set the record as straight as it can be, without going the complete distance and having his body exhumed for forensic investigation; which would be a much more precise examination today with DNA profiling. Keep in mind there are two graves, one in Algonquin and one in Leith, Ontario, said to possess the artist’s remains. One body, two graves. This is going to be an exciting series of feature blogs. Don’t miss a single one.

     In the meantime, make a point of visiting Algonquin Park this summer season, especially this beautiful area of Canoe Lake. There’s lot to do up here, particularly the museum display at the Algonquin Visitor’s Centre. Drive safely and watch for the moose!