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[Music]

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so we’re beginning our tour of 100 years

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the group of seven and other voices

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with the work of two early canadian

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women painters

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first we have mary evelyn rinch who was

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born in england

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and immigrated to canada she studied art

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in toronto and then she

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continued her grad studies abroad in

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england and in france

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where she was exposed to impressionism

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and she described this

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as like being let loose with a box of

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colored candy

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when she returned to canada she

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maintained a studio in toronto

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and she would spend her free time

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traveling to areas of northern ontario

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such as muskoka algoma and lake superior

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where she would apply

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for impressionistic training to the

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landscape

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and this was several years before the

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group of seven ventured to these same

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areas and made them famous in their own

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paintings

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and then we have the work of florence

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mcgilvery mcgilvery also studied in

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toronto and then she

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went abroad and had the opportunity to

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attend an academy in paris that admitted

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women

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and there she learned about

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post-impressionism fovism and symbolism

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and studied with matisse when she

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returned to canada she spent some time

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sketching with and mentoring

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tom thompson in 1916 and 1917.

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in recent years it has been speculated

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by several scholars that it was actually

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mcgilvery who had a really formative

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influence on thompson

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and imparted this knowledge of european

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modernist styles to him

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more so than some of his group of seven

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colleagues such as ay jackson

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in later years she was approached by two

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group of seven members

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to start a canadian society for

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watercolor painters

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as a really adept watercolorist herself

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she was enthusiastic about the idea

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but when the association officially came

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together in 1925

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she was exempt from charter membership

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because it was signed

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into formation at the all male arts and

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letters club in toronto

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so i like to start with these two early

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women painters

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because they kind of disrupt our

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traditional narrative

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of the group of seven we often

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understand them

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as operating in isolation without any

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sort of outside

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influence and as the first to explore

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these areas of ontario

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but we have examples of women artists

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who were going to these areas before

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them

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and who were influenced by international

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modernist styles that they then

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imparted to their group of seven

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[Music]

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colleagues

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you

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