Artworks

March Day, Mont Tremblant Country, P. Que. is undated but certainly of an age suggesting that it is of the 1940s or 1950s. Without his CV handy to confirm the date, we do think that it was around 1959 when “Archie” moved his family back to Toronto from Montreal. However, he did continue to visit the Mont Tremblant region all his life, as guests of one of his daughters and son in law who had and have a country house in the area. For a few years, I had the pleasure of Christmas lunches with Archie and his Montreal based son in law, as he had stopped in Montreal before heading to the Mont Tremblant area for the holidays.

Franklin Arbuckle was a highly accomplished artist in the tradition of Canada's now legendary Group of Seven. At the time when the Group of Seven was disbanding to evolve into a more inclusive group, the Canadian Group of Painters, Arbuckle had only just left the Ontario College of Art. I write “left” the O.C.A. because, if my memory serves me correctly, “Archie” related to me that the head of the College, J.W. Beatty told him, fully a year before he would have graduated that he had already mastered everything that they taught at the College and that he should leave and “get on with it”, that is, go make a living with his art.