Alexander Young Jackson (1882-1974)

• painter, member of the Group of Seven
• born in Montreal, Quebec
• worked in lithography as a youth, and studied art in evening classes
• later studied at the Julien Academy in Paris, and the Art Institute in Chicago
• his painting The edge of the maple wood brought him to the attention of the other Group of Seven artists
• Harris bought this painting, and invited Jackson to Toronto to meet the other artists
• at the time Jackson had been considering moving to the United States because of the negative reception his paintings received in Montreal
• during World War I he served in the infantry and later as an official artist for Canadian war memorials
• after 1919, Jackson devoted himself to individualistic impressionist-inspired paintings of landscapes
• paintings include:
  • A lake in Labrador (1930)
  • Algoma rocks (1923)
  • Valley of the Gouffre River (1933, McMichael Canadian Collection, Kleinburg, Ontario)
  • Gem Lake (1941)
  • Arctic summer (1952)
  • Islands, Georgian Bay (1954)
  • Red Maple (1914, National Gallery, Ottawa):

• further reading: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson: an introduction (1995) by Anne Newlands
• autobiography: A Painter's Country (1958)
• more info at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection
• more Group of Seven information

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