Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
A.Y. Jackson |
Biography |
A.Y. (né Alexander Young) Jackson (Canadian, 1882-1974) began his studies in Montreal but later trained in Paris in 1907. He returned to Canada, after several trips to Europe, in 1913 and really began his professional career. The most widely travelled of the Group of Seven, Jackson sketched in almost every region of the country. A drawing of Nova Scotia, Herring Cove, NS, 1919, sets the pattern for much of his drawing career. It is a rapid but confident study of the shoreline of the fishing village. Jackson has been alert to details of boats and architecture and has made notes about colour and light effects for future reference. In 1922, Jackson and Lawren Harris went to the north shore of Lake Superior. The drawing Jackson-Harris Camp, Lake Superior, circa 1922, shows the tent in which they camped. Jackson was the first member of the Group to visit the Arctic, in 1927, and returned, with Lawren Harris, in 1930. Both times Jackson travelled on the Canadian ship the Beothic, and four of the drawings come from those trips. They reveal Jackson as a master of composition. As Peter Mellen noted of The South Coast of Bylot Island, 1927: "There is great sensitivity of line in Jackson's treatment of the bold rhythmic contours of the mountain forms. The heavy pencil-strokes used for the mountains contrast with the light, wispy clouds of and the water in the foreground." Moreover, Jackson felt changed by the experience. He told a reporter, after the voyage, that he felt "more Canadian, more virile than ever." The drawings convey both the drama and beauty of the landscape. |
Relationships |
Group of Seven Canadian Group of Painters |
