J. E. H. MacDonald
1873–1932 · Canadian landscape painter and member of the Group of Seven
James Edward Hervey MacDonald (Durham, England, 1873 – Toronto, 1932) was an English-born Canadian painter best known as one of the founders of the Group of Seven, which argued for a distinctly Canadian art rooted in direct contact with the country's landscape. His work links commercial design with modern painting in North America.
He emigrated to Hamilton, Ontario, at fourteen and trained at the art school there before moving to Toronto, where he worked as a designer at Grip Ltd. From 1911 he devoted himself more fully to painting. Together with Lawren Harris he developed a way of painting the landscape inspired by the Scandinavian art they saw in Buffalo in 1913. In 1916 he exhibited The Tangled Garden, whose intense colours drew hostile criticism.
In the autumn of 1918 he joined the trips through the Algoma district north of Lake Superior, which produced works such as Mist Fantasy, Sand River, Algoma (1920) and The Solemn Land (1921). After co-founding the Group of Seven in 1920, he taught at the Ontario College of Art and spent the summers from 1924 to 1930 painting the Canadian Rockies. His legacy includes his influence on Canadian landscape painting and a postage stamp issued in 1973.
Works (1)
Painted in 1913 by J. E. H. MacDonald, this work shows a calm bay on a clear day, a departure from the industrial subjects the artist had explored before. Two tiny figures, the painters A. Y. Jackson and Tom Thomson, tie up their canoe on the shore, yet the sky is the real focus, filling over three quarters of the canvas. Cloud reflections on the still water, built with strokes running parallel to the distant shore, give the scene a soft, luminous calm.
Where to see the work
- Art Gallery of Ontario Toronto · 1
Curiosities
A railway car as studio
The Algoma expeditions used a railway car specially fitted out as a mobile studio. The group hitched it to trains passing through the region and, when they found a scenic spot, unhooked it to spend time exploring and painting the wilderness. MacDonald returned with his colleagues for several autumns in a row.
A stamp with his painting
In 1973 Canada Post issued a 15-cent stamp titled 'J.E.H. MacDonald, painter, 1873–1932', designed by William Rueter from Mist Fantasy, Northland (1922), held by the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. The stamps were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited.