According to reports, it is still unclear what caused the fire although questions about the building’s structural integrity remain. Photo by Marika Gabriel
The fire that engulfed the St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto on the morning of June 9 not only damaged a historic site, but also destroyed murals painted by prominent Canadian artists— including members of the famous collective Group of Seven—installed in the 1920s.
According to reports, it is still unclear what caused the fire although questions about the building’s structural integrity remain. Built in 1908, the church was one of the few Anglican churches in Toronto that was in the Byzantine style.
The Group of Seven painters believed in developing a distinct Canadian art and drew many paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape. They are credited with initiating the first major Canadian national art movement. The murals that were lost to the flames, said Father Don Beyers, rector of St. Anne’s, were “invaluable”. These paintings were installed in the 1920s after the Group of Seven founding member J.E.H. MacDonald accepted a commission. He brought in nine other painters, including two other members of the Group of Seven, Fred Varley and Frank Carmichael, according to St. Anne’s website. The murals decorated the chancel and the dome.
“The artwork was priceless. It was murals, beautiful murals,” Father Don Beyers said, according to the Canadian Press. The church was the only one to feature artwork by members of the Group of Seven, he added. According to Parks Canada, the “cycle of paintings” at St. Anne’s Anglican Church combined “narrative scenes, written texts, as well as decorative plasterwork and detailing accentuating the architectural lines of the building”. The paintings comprised 11 narrative scenes, of which four were “large images on the pendentives beneath the central dome” and seven smaller images which ran in a horizontal band around the upper wall of the chancel. Notable artworks include the painting of the Nativity by F.H. Varley, the painting of the Crucifixion by J.E.H. MacDonald, the painting of the Resurrection by H.S. Stansfield, and works by Frank Carmichael, the agency said.
