Frederick Horsman Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969) was a member of the Canadian

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...

Career

Early life

Varley was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, in 1881, the son of Lucy (Barstow) and Samuel James Smith Varley the 7th. He began his art training there in 1892, at the age of 11, studied art in

(1892-1899) and attended the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

(1900-1902),

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, while he worked on the docks. He emigrated to Canada in 1912 on the advice of another Sheffield native (and future

member),

Arthur Lismer Arthur Lismer, LL.D. (27 June 1885 – 23 March 1969) was an English-Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven and educator. He is known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage. Early life ...

, and found work at the Grip Ltd. design firm in Toronto, Ontario and afterwards at Rous & Mann.Canada Post stamp
/ref>

War artist

Beginning in January 1918, he served in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

with C.W. Simpson, J.W. Beatty and Maurice Cullen.Davis, Ann. (1992). Varley came to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, who arranged for him to be commissioned as an official war artist. He accompanied Canadian troops in the ''Hundred Days'' offensive from Amiens, France to Mons, Belgium. His paintings of combat are based on his experiences at the front. Although he had been enthusiastic to travel to France as a war artist, he became deeply disturbed by what he saw, saying: Varley's ''Some Day the People Will Return'', shown at

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...

in London and at the Canadian War Memorials Exhibition, is a large canvas depicting a war-ravaged cemetery, suggesting that even the dead cannot escape the destruction. In Varley's painting ''For What?'' (1918), a single gravedigger takes a rest from his labours, a cart full of bodies beside him. It is one of the few official Canadian First World War paintings that does not hide the reality of battlefield death in images of ruins, blasted trees, and battle detritus.

Group of Seven

In 1920, he was a founding member of the

. He was the only original member of the Group of Seven to specialize in portraiture, but he also painted

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s. Varley's major contribution to art is his work with the Group of Seven and his portraits.

Later life and death

After living in Ontario for a number of years, Varley moved to Vancouver, BC in 1926 where he became Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts in Vancouver at the invitation of Charles Hepburn Scott. He remained in this position from 1926 until 1933. In British Columbia, he painted images of mountains and mountainsides, drawing upon several influences from Chinese painting to William Turner and Samuel Palmer. He left in 1936 due to his experiences with depression, and two years later joined fellow artist Terry M. Shortt, the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

ornithologist, on a trip to the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

in 1938. In 1954, along with a handful of artists including Eric Aldwinckle, he visited the Soviet Union on the first cultural exchange of the Cold War. For the last twelve years of his life, Varley lived in Markham,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

with Kathleen and Donald McKay. Kathleen nurtured Varley’s later artistic career by setting up a studio for him in the basement of her ancestral home, now the McKay Art Centre located at 197 Main Street Unionville. After Varley’s death in 1969, Kathleen promised to donate her considerable collection of works by Varley and his contemporaries to Markham, to be housed in a gallery suitable for their display and preservation. That promise resulted in the building of the Varley Art Gallery of Markham, which opened in 1997. He was buried alongside other members of the Original Seven at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection grounds in Kleinburg, Ontario.

Recognition

Varley was an associate member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

In Unionville, the Varley Art Gallery of Markham is named after him, as is ''Fred Varley'' Drive, a two-lane residential street. Varley lived nearby at the Salem-Eckhardt House from 1952 to 1969. On 6 May 1994 Canada Post issued 'Vera (detail), F.H. Varley, 1931' in the Masterpieces of Canadian art series. The stamp was designed by Pierre-Yves Pelletier based on an oil painting ''Vera'', (1931) by Frederick Horsman Varley in the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

, Ottawa, Ontario. The 88¢ stamps are perforated 14 x 14.5 mm and were printed by Leigh-Mardon Pty Limited. His place in the

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

of Canada is verified by the government's decision to reproduce his self-portrait as
17-cent postage stamp
On 22 May 1981 Canada Post issued 'Frederick H. Varley, Self Portrait' designed by Pierre Fontaine. The stamps are based on an oil painting ''Self Portrait'', (circa 1945) by Frederick Horsman Varley in the Hart House Permanent Collection, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. The 17¢ stamps are perforated 12.5 mm and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited. Varley has been designated as an Historic Person in the Directory of Federal Heritage Designations.

Selected works

File:Frederick Varley - German Prisoners.jpg, German prisoners on the Western Front. File:Frederick Varley - Gas Chamber at Seaford.jpg, Gas chamber at Seaford File:Frederick Varley - The Young Man's Element, the Air.jpg, The Young Man's Element, the Air

Record sale prices

At the Cowley Abbott Auction of An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art, December 6, 2023, lot 105, Varley's ''Sun and Wind, Georgian Bay'', 1916 or 1920, oil on panel, mounted to plywood, , Auction Estimate: $70,000.00 – $90,000.00, realized a price of $984,000.00.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * Brandon, Laura. (2008)
''Art and War.''
New York: I.B. Tauris.
OCLC 225345535
*Brandon, Laura. (2021).
War Art in Canada: A Critical History
'' Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2021. ISBN 978-1-4871-0271-5. * Davis, Ann (1992). ''The logic of ecstasy: Canadian mystical painting, 1920–1940''. Toronto:

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university calendar. Its first s ...

. ;
OCLC 26256269
* Reid, Dennis R. (1988). ''A Concise History of Canadian Painting.'' Toronto: Oxford University Press. ;
OCLC 18378555
* *

External links

*

CBC Digital Archives - The Group of Seven: Painters in the Wilderness

Watch the NFB documentary ''Varley''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varley, Frederick 1881 births 1969 deaths 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 19th-century English painters 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century English painters Artists from Sheffield Canadian portrait painters Canadian war artists English male painters Group of Seven (artists) Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) World War I artists 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists 19th-century Canadian male artists 20th-century Canadian male artists British emigrants to Canada Canadian watercolourists