McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Robert and Signe McMichael began collecting Group of Seven paintings in the 1950s and built a house of hand-hewn logs and fieldstone in the woods at Kleinburg to hold them; they gave house and collection to Ontario in 1965. The gallery has grown around the original building but kept the timber and stone, and the point is the setting: the landscapes are shown in the kind of country that produced them, with windows opening onto the same forest. Six members of the Group of Seven are buried in a small cemetery on the grounds. The collection has expanded into Indigenous and Inuit art alongside the founding holdings.

What you actually see

• The Group of Seven collection - landscapes shown in a forest setting.
• The artists' graves - six Group members buried in a plot on the grounds.
• The log and stone building - the McMichaels' house grown into a gallery.
• The Indigenous and Inuit holdings - collections built up since the founding gift.

When to go

Year-round; autumn colour in the surrounding woods matches the paintings and is the strongest season. The gallery closes some Mondays. Sculpture trails run through the grounds.

Honest expectations

It is forty kilometres from central Toronto with limited transit, so a car is close to essential. Hanging rotates, so specific favourite works may not be on show. It is smaller than the AGO.

Nearby

Canada's Wonderland lies south; Toronto is beyond it.