Biography

Born in Montreal, Alexander Young Jackson left school at the age of twelve and began work at a Montreal printing firm. In 1906, he undertook art studies at the Art Institute in Chicago. The following year he enrolled at the Académie Julian where he studied under Jean Paul Laurens for six months, then he travelled to Italy with others where they visited galleries in Rome, Florence and Venice. They returned to France and Jackson went to the village of Episy with a fellow student named Porter with whom he had lived in Paris. Jackson found much to paint at Episy: old farms, rolling country, the canal where barges were towed by mules, and for the first time (in France) he lived with people close to the land. He left France when his funds were low and returned to Canada in 1910 where the “clear crisp air and sharp shadows” of Sweetsburg, Quebec, became the subject of his canvas “Edge of the Maple Wood”. During this period his painting was strongly influenced by the Impressionists. Then the work of Canadian artists Cullen and Morrice led him further in the discoveries of snow and other elements of Canadian subject matter which were to become an integral part of his work throughout his life. After his return to Canada, Jackson took up residence in Montreal and made many sketching trips to the surrounding countryside. While at Emileville he received a letter from a J.E.H. MacDonald of Toronto who wanted to purchase his “Edge of the Maple Wood” on behalf of a third party, Lawren Harris. Jackson sold the picture and later met MacDonald in Toronto. In Toronto he also met, through MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley and other members of the Arts and Letters Club who were employed by the Grip Engraving Company as commercial artists. Jackson later went to Georgian Bay to sketch and was visited there by Dr. James MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris. MacCallum, who had a summer home at the Bay, offered Jackson a place to work in the ‘Studio Building’ which MacCallum and Lawren Harris were having built for Canadian artists in Toronto. In the meantime Jackson was invited to stay at MacCallum’s summer home. Jackson’s production was good; he did many sketches and a number of canvases, one being the “Maple in the Pine Woods” which was later to bring a storm of criticism at a Group of Seven exhibition. On his return to Toronto, Jackson stayed at Lawren Harris’ studio in Toronto until the Studio Building was completed. There one day he was introduced to Tom Thomson who had accompanied Dr. MacCallum on a visit. Thomson was also an employee of the Grip Engraving Company. The two moved into the Studio Building in January 1914 and shared a studio. Thomson had soon inspired Jackson to visit Algonquin Park in February and March of 1914. Jackson also sketched that year with J.E.H. MacDonald and J.W. Beatty. In 1915, Jackson enlisted as a private in the 60th Battalion and after being wounded, returned later to the front as Lieutenant with Canadian War Records. As a war artist he created one of the finest collections of war paintings our nation possesses. In 1919 he went to Algoma with J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris and Franz Johnston, making use of a railway box car as a studio which Harris had arranged. During that year, Jackson became a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy. On May 7th, 1920, the first exhibition of the Group of Seven opened at the Art Gallery of Toronto. The Group continued to exhibit until 1931. Each exhibition of the Group was met with great protest. In July of 1927 Jackson and Dr. Frederick Banting went north on the steamer ‘Beothic’ which had been chartered by the government to deliver supplies to the RCMP posts and to carry relief constables to the posts. They sketched at Pond Inlet, Devon Island, Ellesmere Island and other arctic locations. Jackson’s arctic sketches were exhibited at the Art Gallery of Toronto. Jackson's great sense of adventure carried him from the east coast across Canada to the Rocky Mountains of the west. He made regular sketching trips to Quebec every spring and travelled to the far regions of Canada during the summer, including the Canadian Arctic. In the fall he would return to the Studio Building in Toronto (where he lived until 1955), spending the winters painting canvases. He continued this active lifestyle until he was in his eighties. Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979

Alexander Young Jackson

Biography

Current & Upcoming Works

Grey Day, Port au Persil

Georgian Bay

Winter Landscape in Quebec

The Pont Neuf, Paris

Barn, St. Tite des Caps

D'pencier Home In Owen Sound (From the Coutts Painters Of Canada Series)

Auction Results

2026

Muskoka, Ont.

Smart River, Alaska Highway

Waterton Lake, Alberta

Summer Day in the Laurentians

Grey Day, St. Tite des Caps

2025

Berlin, Ont.

Old Birch Trees, Calabogie

Eldorado Mines, Great Bear Lake

2024

Canmore

Farm at Actinolite

Landscape near Coppermine, N.W.T.

2023

Ste Marthe, Gaspé

At Pilot Harbour, Lake Superior

Lévis

2022

Autumn near Danford Lake

Muskoka Farm

Bark Lake, Near Barry’s Bay, Ontario, In the Ottawa Valley

2021

Corner of a field with cedar rail fence

Autumn in the Quebec Hills

The Red Barn

2020

Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska, NB

Alberta Farm, Near Edmonton

Alberta Farm

2019

Farm at Avoca, Quebec

Split Rock Island, Georgian Bay

South Pine from Split Rock

2018

The Far North: A Book of Drawings by A.Y. Jackson

Potlatch Houses and Totem Poles in Kispiox on the Upper Skeena River, B.C.

The Seasons Greetings

2017

Road Over Cap Tourmente (The St. Lawrence)

Gatineau

Gulf of St. Lawrence

2016

Paperboard Making

Monument Channel in Georgian Bay

Islands, Go Home Bay

2015

Birch and Maple

2014

Morning Light, Combermere

Early Spring

Ripon on the Road to Chenville, Quebec

2013

Ship in Port (Pictou, N.S.)

More Canadian Artists

Lawren Stewart Harris

Emily Carr

Tom Thomson

David Brown Milne

Jack Hamilton Bush

Alfred Joseph Casson

Fox River

McMichael Conservatory, Kleinburg

Near Gros Roche, Quebec

Snow in September, 1947

Landscape with Timber

St. Jean Port Joli, Quebec, 1927

Landscape with Farmhouse and Barn

Houses in Winter

Winter Sleighing Scene