A ‘dangerous influence’
A.Y. Jackson’s Impressionist paintings revolutionized Canadian art.
The last of Canada’s original Group of Seven painters passed away fifty years ago on April 5, 1974. Alexander Young Jackson — Alex to his friends and A.Y. to everyone else — was one of the best-known Canadian artists of the twentieth century.
Known for his Impressionist paintings of rugged landscapes that helped to revolutionize Canadian art, Jackson also created battlefield paintings while serving overseas during the First World War.
“It’s probably hard for anyone looking at my landscapes today to realize that I was once regarded as a rebel, a dangerous influence; that I’ve been told I was on the verge of insanity, that my painting was nothing but meaningless daubs,” Jackson said later in life.
Born in Montreal in 1882, he was forced to go to work at age twelve after his father abandoned his family of six children. Alex’s apprenticeship in the design department of a printing company stimulated his interest in art. After studying Impressionism in France, he returned to Montreal to paint; but he was discouraged by a lack of interest in his work and almost moved to the United States.
Jackson changed his mind about leaving Canada after learning that Toronto artist Lawren Harris wanted to purchase one of his paintings. He travelled to Ontario and established connections with painters in Toronto, including Tom Thomson, with whom he shared studio space. He exhibited with the Group of Seven from 1920 and played a key role in bringing the artists of Montreal and Toronto together.
Over the course of his life Jackson travelled widely, taught, and painted constantly until a stroke he suffered in 1968 ended his art career. He is buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, along with some of his contemporaries in the Group of Seven.