The Group of Seven connection to Massey-Harris
Shelly McElroy is the 2022 Historian in Residence
Mt. Lefroy, 1930. Lawren S. Harris (1885-1970)
Tractor Trivia Answers: Massey (now AGCO) will celebrate its 175th anniversary in 2022. It has been involved with agriculture since 1847. This famous tractor brand has important ties to Canada, as well as a link to a famous artist. Do you know which one?
Have you ever thought that the advertising for Massey-Harris was a cut above in terms of artistic style? If so, you were not imagining it. Lawren S. Harris, one of the most famous artists in Canadian history, was one of the “Harrises” in Massey-Harris. His family’s fortune had been made through the inventions and evolutions of the industrial revolution, but while Harris’ artistic gifts were used to help market his family’s business, he had a career that was built around expression, a creative life and what it means to be a Canadian artist.
An image of Lawren Harris painting in 1920. (Edward P. Taylor Research Library & Archives)
Harris was born in 1885 and attended boarding school in Toronto. He also spent several years studying art in Germany. When World War One began, Harris enlisted, as did many of his friends. He taught musketry at Camp Borden, near Barrie, Ontario – and loathed it. Can you imagine how strange it must have been for someone who had lived in Germany to be at war with it?
The war also affected what Harris wanted to paint. He needed to communicate his feelings about Canada, “Using a more creative and magnificent communion than war.” Harris’s good friend Tom Thompson was killed in 1917 and his beloved brother Howard died in action the following year. Howard had received the Military Cross for heroism in Europe. Harris became depressed and began experiencing symptoms that we would now recognize as Post-Traumatic Stress. He believed the war had been utterly futile and was asking himself what being a Canadian truly meant. He thought that only a new vision for the country could make Canada work. He was a passionate person, with immense artistic skill, and money was no object. He became the unofficial leader of the artists known as the Group of Seven.
Maligne Lake, Jasper Park, 1924 by Lawren Harris.
Ironically, one of the things that the Group of Seven advocated was a move away from mechanization and materialism. Someone whose family’s fortune had been built on the wonders of the industrial revolution was encouraging liberation from it. Harris and the other group members were creating a romantic idea of what it meant to be a Canadian artist. They envisioned someone hardy and unsentimental.
Mount Lefroy north aspect, and Victoria Glacier. Christopher Michel.
Of all the Group of Seven, Harris had a special affinity for Alberta. He spent every summer between 1924 and 1928 in the Rockies. He was searching for spiritual insight and some art historians believe that his landscapes reached their deepest intensity in the mountains. They inspired him to eliminate details, remove distractions. When we look at our lives, what is truly important? He once said, “In the Rockies, we discovered that mountains vary markedly in character and mood. And we found that all these differences in character, mood and spirit were vital to a creative expression in paint which went beyond mere decoration and respectability in art.”
During those summer visits, Harris lived with park wardens in their rugged cabins. “We became good friends with [a ranger] until he was killed by a grizzly bear one evening,” he reported. (!!!)
Harris hiking near Mount Temple in the Alberta Rockies with CBC producer Ira Dilworth. (Estate of Lawren S. Harris)
Harris’ personal life was punctuated by what was at the time a huge scandal (and it still is, actually). Harris was married to Trixie in 1910. The pair had three children together, but Harris later fell in love with Bess, who was married to his friend, F.B. Housser. Harris ultimately left his family, marrying Bess in 1934. Later that year they moved to the United States; in 1940 they relocated to Vancouver. They were married until Bess died in 1969.
Whether you know about tractors or art, you could be forgiven if you never made the link between the tractor manufacturer and the famous artist. Below is the list of books that we looked at when we were researching this trivia question. The art books do not mention the tractors, and the tractor books do not mention the artist. In fact, the only reason that we learned about the connection is that Don Ellingson, whose collection of Massey Harris tractors attracts national and international visitors to Pioneer Acres, told us about it. We hope that you can visit Pioneer Acres in person to see those tractors for yourself, and now you’ll know that the Canadian innovation behind that brand extended not only to inventions that had a global influence on agriculture, but to a ground-breaking Canadian artist.
Group of Seven:
Biggest influences – Monet and the other Impressionists
Favourite Poet – Walt Whitman
Philosophical influences – Theosophy
Read More:
The Proud Heritage of AGCO Tractors by Norm Swinford
The Big Book of Massey Tractors by Robert N. Pripps
Alberta Art and Artists by Patricia Ainslie and Mary-Beth Laviolette
The Story of the Group of Seven by Lawren Harris (Toronto: Rous & Mann Press Limited, 1964)
Take a Virtual Tour:
National Gallery of Canada: https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/lawren-s-harris
Shelly McElroy is the curator of Pioneer Acres Museum in Irricana, Alberta. Pioneer Acres Museum is one of the largest agricultural and industrial history museums in Alberta with a collection of thousands of artifacts. Shelly has a background in education, agriculture, counselling, and museums. Her primary field is the natural grass pasture behind the museum where she works that is full of crocuses, meadowlarks, and the occasional unwelcome skunk.
The Historian in Residence is presented in partnership with Calgary Public Library.