Artworks

The importance of A.Y. Jackson’s contribution to art in Canada painted throughout his career can never be overstated. There is not likely any artist more synonymous with Canadian art than Alexander Young Jackson. According to Lawren Harris, Jackson was, “The real force and inspiration that led [the Group of Seven] into a modern conception which suited this country” [...] “the one era of creative art that has the greatest significance for Canada” [1].

In the annals of Canadian art of his generation, and prior to as well, there can be no artist who in his/her art shared with Canadians such a vast wealth of paintings of Canada, east to west and north to south. In his incessant search of painterly subject matter, Dr. Jackson traveled until he could travel no more, traveling distances long and short and durations similar in length, depending upon the destinations.

Did his style or approach to painting change over the decades? Yes, of course. One would be critical if over a 60 year career it did not. Throughout, his spirit and his confidence of hand that Harris suggests was the force behind the inception of the Group of Seven were unwavering

We are offering here the first of a fine selection of Jackson paintings including excellent sketches in oil and a vibrant and colourful composition on canvas painted in the years Jackson was living in Ottawa. The location of Diamond Lake near Combermere is today a 2 ½ hour drive heading west from Ottawa. The composition of the Laurentians is reminiscent of subject matter Jackson found so painterly along the lower St Lawrence 40 years earlier. Cap Tourmente and the surrounding area, St Joachim, on the route toward Baie St Paul in the county of Charlevoix, never ceased to inspire Jackson on his occasional sketching trips to the region over the better part of 45 years.

Not coincidentally, these are works of art that Walter Klinkhoff would have acquired directly from Dr. Jackson and then offered them to this enthusiastic couple. (As an editorial comment related to money and art markets, I indulge myself by saying that these are available for purchase at less money than one would pay for a Maud Lewis. A.K.)

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Footnote:
A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson (Vancouver/Toronto: Clarke, Irwin and Company, 1948), p.157