One of the first pieces of art I ever bought was a large print of an A.Y. Jackson painting (Maple and Birches), which was on clearance at the gift shop of the Art Gallery of Ontario. My parents had it framed for me for Christmas. It later inspired the paint colour of my bedroom (“burnt pumpkin”) and spent years hanging in the dining room of my first house. Now it is carefully packaged in bubble wrap waiting for our next home.

Back to A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974) — he was a Canadian artist, one of the founding members of the Group of Seven, who “helped to remake the visual image of Canada.” Here are twelve things you might not know about his life.

1. Alexander Young Jackson was born in Montreal, where he began work for a lithography company at age 12. He later spent a year working in Chicago. In both Montreal and Chicago he took art classes at night school.

2. In 1907 Jackson moved to Paris to study at the Académie Julian and spent a few years travelling in Europe, studying and sketching.

3. Back in Montreal Jackson painted The Edge of the Maple Wood (1910), which put him in contact with future members of the Group of Seven.

4. In 1913 Jackson moved to Toronto, where he shared a studio with Tom Thomson.

5. During World War I Jackson served in the Canadian army; after he was wounded he worked as an artist for the Canadian War Records.

6. Jackson joined the Group of Seven in 1919 and exhibited with them throughout the 1920s. In 1933 he founded the Canadian Group of Painters.

7. Jackson always favoured landscapes. He enjoyed painting remote regions (twice visiting the Arctic) as well as Quebec and Georgian Bay.

8. Jackson taught for one year at the Ontario College of Art and six years at the Banff School of Fine Arts.

9. In 1954 the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned Jackson (and 17 other artists) to paint a mural in one of their cars; he painted Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park in British Columbia.

10. During the Great Flag Debate of 1963-64 Jackson submitted a design for a new Canadian flag (similar to the Pearson Pennant).

11. After a debilitating stroke Jackson spent the last six years of his life at the home of Robert and Signe McMichael (now McMichael Canadian Art Collection), in Kleinberg, Ontario.

12. There are two secondary schools in Ontario named after A.Y. Jackson, as well as a lookout in Sudbury (overlooking a waterfall depicted in one of his paintings, Spring on the Onaping River).

Sources

• “A.Y. Jackson” via The Canadian Encyclopedia
• “A.Y. Jackson” via The Art History Archive