Frederick Varley

January 2, 1881 - September 8, 1969

Frederick Horsman Varley was born in Sheffield, England in 1881. He began his art training there from 1892-1899 and later attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, Belgium from 1900-1902. Varley emigrated to Canada in 1912 on the advice of Arthur Lismer and found work at the Grip Ltd. design firm in Toronto, Ontario and afterwards at Rous & Mann. Varley would be appointed as an official war artist during the First World War. In 1920, he became a founding member of the Group of Seven, focusing on not only landscape but also portraiture.

Varley moved to Vancouver, BC in 1926 and became the Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the School of Decorative and Applied Arts in Vancouver where he remained until 1933. Varley would return to Ontario where he would reside until his passing in 1969.