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A. Y. Jackson

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Alexander Young Jackson
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(born Oct. 3, 1882, Montreal, Que., Can. — died April 5, 1974, Kleinburg, Ont.) Canadian landscape painter. He traveled to every region of Canada, including the Arctic; from 1921 on, he returned every spring to a favourite spot on the St. Lawrence River, where he produced sketches that he later executed in paint. Over a long career he became a leading artistic figure in his country. His easy style, featuring rolling rhythms and rich, full colour, exerted a strong influence on Canadian landscape painting.

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Art Encyclopedia: Alexander Young Jackson
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(b Montreal, 3 Oct 1882; d Kleinburg, Ont., 5 April 1974). Canadian painter. He worked as a commercial artist in Montreal (1895-1906) and Chicago (1906-7) and attended evening classes at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1906. Determined to become a painter, he went to Paris in 1907 and studied at the Acad?mie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens. He returned to Montreal in 1909 but in 1913 moved to Toronto, where he became associated with other painters who later banded together as the GROUP OF SEVEN, notably J. E. H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer and Fred Varley. One of the first large paintings in which he established the terms of his approach to the open Canadian landscape, Terre Sauvage (1913; Ottawa, N.G.; for illustration see GROUP OF SEVEN), was painted in the studio of a future member of the group, Lawren S. Harris. He shared a studio with Tom Thomson from January 1914 and in October 1914 went with him, Lismer and Varley to paint in Algonquin Provincial Park, developing with them an intense dedication to the painting of the northern landscape.

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Wikipedia: A. Y. Jackson
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A.Y. Jackson

A.Y. Jackson at work
Birth name Alexander Young Jackson
Born October 3, 1882(1882-10-03)
Montreal, Quebec
Died April 5, 1974 (aged 91)
Toronto, Ontario
Nationality Canadian
Field Painting
Training Le Monument National, Art Institute of Chicago, Academie Julian
Movement Group of Seven

Alexander Young Jackson, CC, CMG (October 3, 1882 in Montreal, Quebec – April 5, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario) was a Canadian painter and founding member of the Group of Seven.

Contents

Early life and training

As a young boy, Jackson worked as an office boy for a lithograph company, after his father abandoned the family of six children. It was at this company that Jackson began his art training. In the evenings, he took classes at Montreal's Le Monument National.

In 1905, he worked his way to Europe on cattle boat, returning by the same means and travelling on to Chicago. In Chicago, he joined a commercial art firm and took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago. He saved his earnings and, by 1907, was able to visit France to study Impressionism. In France, he decided to become a professional painter, and studied at Paris' Academie Julian under J.P. Laurens. He also visited Italy and the Netherlands. Jackson painted in an Impressionist style.

Professional career

Red Maple, 1914, by A.Y. Jackson

Jackson returned to Canada, settling in Sweetsburg, Quebec, where he began painting works such as The Edge of Maple Wood. He held his first single artist exhibition at the Montreal Art Gallery with Randolph Hewton in 1913. Unable to make ends meet and discouraged by the Canadian art scene, he considered moving to the United States. However, he received a letter from J. E. H. MacDonald and changed his mind.


MacDonald inquired about The Edge of Maple Wood, which he had seen at a Toronto art show. MacDonald said that Toronto artist Lawren Harris wanted to purchase the painting, if Jackson still owned it. Harris purchased the painting and Jackson struck up correspondence with the Toronto artists, often debating Canadian art. Jackson soon began long visits to Toronto.

In his visits, A.Y. Jackson often joined the painters who would one day be known as the Group of Seven on major trips to Algonquin Park, Georgian Bay, Algoma and the North Shore. Like the other Group painters, Jackson embraced landscape themes and sought to develop a bold style. An avid outdoorsman, Jackson became good friends with Tom Thomson, and the duo often fished and sketched.

In 1910, Harris convinced Jackson to spend the summer painting in Georgian Bay. A local doctor offered use of his cottage, a studio and paid expenses.

War service

Jackson enlisted in the Canadian Army's 60th battalion in 1915. Private Jackson was wounded at the Battle of Sanctuary Wood in June 1916, soon after he reached the front. After recovering from his injuries, he was transferred to the Canadian War Records branch as an artist. He later worked for the Canadian War Memorials, from 1917 to 1919.

Afterwards, Jackson returned to Toronto, often making painting expeditions to the lower St Lawrence, the Arctic, and British Columbia..

Group of Seven

In 1919 Jackson and six painter colleagues formed the Group of Seven. These artists were considered bold, because the Canadian wilderness had previously been considered too rugged and wild to be painted.[1]

In 1925, he taught at the Ontario College of Art (OCA), in Toronto; this was the only year that he missed his annual spring trip to Quebec.

In 1933, Jackson helped found the Canadian Group of Painters.

Later Years

He moved to the Ottawa region in 1955, settling in Manotick.

In 1958 he published "A Painter's Country,"[2] his autobiography, dedicated to the memory of J.E.H. MacDonald, "who visualized a Canadian school of painting and devoted his life to the realization of it." [3]

In 1964, Jackson submitted his own design during the Great Flag Debate, a similar design to the Pearson Pennant. [4]

Jackson died in 1974, over the Easter holiday in a nursing home in Toronto. He is buried on the grounds of the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg.[5]

Honours

In 1967 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.[6]

A. Y. Jackson Secondary School (Toronto) was named after him. [7] He attended the opening of the school in 1970. A. Y. Jackson Secondary School (Ottawa, Ontario) is also named after him and opened in 1976.[8]

In 1970, the Royal Canadian Academy awarded him its medal for lifetime achievement.[9]

The A. Y. Jackson Lookout on Highway 144 in Sudbury overlooks the waterfall depicted in Jackson's 1953 painting "Spring on the Onaping River".[10]

Works

See Available work(s) by A.Y. Jackson at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff

See Group of Seven Art Gallery Tour: A. Y. Jackson. Group of Seven Art.com

Notes

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:A. Y. Jackson
  1. ^ The Group of Seven. Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery page. Retrieved April 30, 2006.
  2. ^ ISBN 978-0772011022
  3. ^ Jackson, A.Y., 'A Painter's Country,' Clarke Irwin & Company, 1958, Frontispiece
  4. ^ A.Y. Jackson Video Clip. CBC Feature on A.Y. Jackson - see Did You Know feature.
  5. ^ Jackson, A.Y., 'A Painter's Country,' Clarke Irwin, 1976, Forward by Naomi Jackson Groves
  6. ^ A.Y. Jackson Order of Canada Citation
  7. ^ A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, Toronto, ON
  8. ^ A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, Kanata (Ottawa), ON
  9. ^ Jackson, A.Y., 'A Painter's Country,' Clarke Irwin, 1976, Forward by Naomi Jackson Groves
  10. ^ "Spring on the Onaping River"

See also

External links

v • d • e
Group of Seven
Original members
Other members
See also

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