In the spring of 1918 Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald, two members of the soon-to-be-formed Group of Seven, met in the Studio Building in Toronto. Their friend Tom Thomson had died in mysterious circumstances the year before and, together, they determined to establish him as one of Canada"s great artists. Most of his paintings and sketches were stacked up in the studio, and they decided on a plan. They would select the best, mark their comments on the back of these works, and make sure they got into Canada"s most prestigious public and private collections. These two great artists choose to honour Thomson in this way because they had been his mentors and friends. Along with other painters such as A.Y. Jackson, they had taught him about current art movements in Europe and coached him in painting techniques. Thomson learned quickly, and, in the three or four years before his death, he combined this knowledge and these skills with his own prodigious talent and intimacy with nature....