Frederick H. Varley

Frederick Horsman Varley (1881–1969) was a founding member of the Group of Seven whose work stood out for its psychological depth and emotional intensity. Born in Sheffield, England, Varley trained at the Sheffield School of Art and the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp before immigrating to Canada in 1912. He first worked in commercial art but soon established himself as a painter, joining the Group of Seven in 1920. While he painted landscapes alongside his peers, Varley was equally drawn to portraiture and the human figure, bringing a rare focus on humanity to a group best known for its depictions of wilderness.

Varley’s career was marked by both artistic brilliance and personal turbulence. After leaving the Group of Seven in the 1920s, he pursued teaching and painting across Canada, from Ontario to Vancouver, where he became a key figure in the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. His portraits and landscapes often convey a brooding atmosphere, blending natural beauty with psychological insight. Though less commercially successful than some of his contemporaries, Varley’s uncompromising vision and expressive brushwork cemented his place as one of Canada’s most original modernist painters. Today, his works are celebrated for their profound humanity and their ability to fuse landscape, emotion, and identity.