Who paints the painters? In the case of The Group of Seven, it was Joachim Gauthier, a former member of the Arts & Letters Club. Born in North Bay, Ontario, he had an early interest in art and in later years studied at Tacoma, Washington, USA under sculptor Victor Alonzo Lewis. He then returned to Canada and studied under Franklin Carmichael and J.E.H. MacDonald in Toronto. He worked as a commercial artist for Sampson Matthews Limited for over 37 years.
In painting he was noted as early as 1932 by A.H. Robson as one of the younger painters who had shown originality and ability. He created mostly landscapes in realistic and impressionistic styles using as media oil and watercolours. One of his major commissions, many years later, was to undertake the portraits of The Group of Seven members for the McMichael Collection in Kleinburg. The Province of Ontario presented a painting by Gauthier to Pope Paul VI; it now hangs in the Vatican.
Joe became a member of the Arts & Letters Club in 1935, resigned shortly afterwards and rejoined in 1975. He was a frequent companion of Casson, Carmichael and other Club members on sketching trips, was a member of the R.C.A. the O.S.A. and the C.S.P.W. A traditionalist, he stood somewhat aside from The Group of Seven and “admired, but never agreed with, Lawren Harris’ late preoccupation with abstract painting.”
Sources: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979; “News & Views of Club Programmes and Activities”, Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, 1988
