In master engraver George A. Walker’s newest work, The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, the circumstances surrounding the death and disappearance of the iconic Canadian artist are explored through some one hundred and nine wood engravings, creating a work that eulogizes not only the artist himself, but the struggle of the artist’s attempt to express himself while constrained by society, the reality of the moment, and mortality.
Walker’s engravings in The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson pay homage to Thomson’s contribution to Canadian culture through both representations of his own life and of the contemporary artistic community as a whole. The German Expressionists, who were active around the time Thomson was painting, often used wood engraving techniques in their own works. A ‘‘wordless novel’’ format captures the essence of Tom Thomson’s artistic spirit and iconic story in an apt way—not only acknowledging the global community of artists of which he was a part, but also alluding to the multiply-interpreted circumstances of his life and death in ways that a text-based work could not.