Five Paintings by A.Y. Jackson

Held online from May 24-29, 2024, our spring auction of Canadian and International Fine Art brings together exceptional work from around the world, including five paintings by A.Y. Jackson.

SWAMP LAKE, GO HOME BAY, 1954

A.Y. Jackson first visited Go Home Bay, on the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, in 1913. After moving into a crude shack on Portage Island, Jackson was visited by Toronto ophthalmologist Dr. James MacCallum. MacCallum, on the urging of Lawren Harris, invited Jackson to instead stay at his palatial cottage on Go Home Bay. MacCallum was a lover of Canadian art – as well as a dedicated patron to struggling artists. In addition to his invitation to stay with him, he extended Jackson the offer of a year’s financial support on the condition that he take a studio in the Studio Building in Toronto rather than leave for New York at the end of the summer season.

MacCallum had been in close contact with Harris through their mutual association with the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, and had agreed to help financially back the construction of the Studio Building. Harris and Jackson had also connected for the first time a few months before MacCallum’s generous offer, with Harris having travelled to Berlin (present-day Kitchener), Ontario to meet with Jackson. Harris spoke of the need for a truly Canadian art movement, and wanted Jackson to join. Jackson, who instantly took a liking to Harris, was not immediately convinced, concerned as he was with the difficulties of supporting himself as a landscape painter of Canadian scenes in a city as expensive and indifferent to Canadian art as Toronto of the period. It was MacCallum’s offer of financial support in the fall of 1913 that tipped the balance and convinced Jackson to make his way to Toronto, a momentous move towards his role in the Group of Seven.

Jackson would return to Go Home Bay at least seven more times to sketch and paint. In his memoir, he wrote that “Go Home Bay and the outer islands are filled for me with happy memories of good friends and of efforts, more or less successful, that I made to portray its ever-varying moods.”[1] He elaborated further, writing that “there were many places to go within an hour – much infinite variety, lagoons with water lilies and pickerel weeds, smooth rocks worn into fantastic shapes by glacial actions, pine trees clinging to the rocks and bent into strange forms by the prevailing west winds. Every wind brought its change of colour, – the North wind with everything sharply defined and the distant islands lifted above the horizon by mirage; the South wind, – the blue giving way to greys and browns and the water rushing over the shoals; and the West wind best of all, – sparkling and full of movement.”[2]

MacCallum’s cottage on Go Home Bay would provide a basecamp not only for Jackson but for other members of the Group to make paintings which would become some of the most familiar in Canadian art, including F.H. Varley’s Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay (National Gallery of Canada, Accession number 1814) and Arthur Lismer’s A September Gale, Georgian Bay (National Gallery of Canada, Accession number 3360).

ELDORADO MINES, GREAT BEAR LAKE, 1950

A.Y. Jackson first visited Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories in 1928, on a riverboat trip with Dr. Frederick Grant Banting – inventor of insulin and a regular sketching companion of Jackson’s – and geologist Dr. James Macintosh Bell. At the time, the far north was, per Jackson, “a part of the country few Canadians at the time knew anything about”[3] and the resulting paintings broke new ground. Conditions were far from palatial – mosquitos were a constant menace – but Jackson was captivated by the rugged landscapes. Though he was anxious to return to the Northwest Territories, it would be a decade before that dream was realised.

In 1938, prospector Gilbert La Bine invited Jackson up to his mine at Eldorado, 400 kilometres north of Yellowknife, on the banks of Great Bear Lake. La Bine had discovered a radium deposit almost a decade earlier, and a small village known as Port Radium sprung up to service it. Jackson eagerly accepted the invitation, and after a few weeks spent painting in Georgian Bay was flown up to Eldorado. He spent six undisturbed weeks working in this remote part of the country where “everything that takes place does it over a thousand miles.”[4] Jackson enjoyed painting both the wilderness of the Barren Lands and the tiny town of Port Radium from a variety of vantage points.

Jackson would return to Port Radium in 1949, a trip he took after completing his final summer teaching at Banff. He was accompanied by geologist Maurice Haycock. The two would return the following year, and Jackson would visit again in 1951, in the company of mining employee John Rennie. By then, Port Radium had become home to roughly 200 people, as well as the Hudson Bay Company and RCMP outposts, a post office, a radio station and other government offices. Dennis Reid writes that Jackson’s “attention would be drawn increasingly to that extensive part of the country that neither contained the soil nor enjoyed the climate to sustain settled life, but that nonetheless drew hardy, adventurous men with its promise of hidden wealth.”[5]

We are pleased to offer two paintings from these later Eldorado trips in this auction: lot 26, Eldorado Mines, Great Bear Lake, 1950 and lot 27, Rock Form Eldorado Mines, September 1949.

ROCK FORM ELDORADO MINES, SEPTEMBER 1949

A.Y. Jackson first visited Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories in 1928, on a riverboat trip with Dr. Frederick Grant Banting – inventor of insulin and a regular sketching companion of Jackson’s – and geologist Dr. James Macintosh Bell. At the time, the far north was, per Jackson, “a part of the country few Canadians at the time knew anything about”[6] and the resulting paintings broke new ground. Conditions were far from palatial – mosquitos were a constant menace – but Jackson was captivated by the rugged landscapes. Though he was anxious to return to the Northwest Territories, it would be a decade before that dream was realised.

In 1938, prospector Gilbert La Bine invited Jackson up to his mine at Eldorado, 400 kilometres north of Yellowknife, on the banks of Great Bear Lake. La Bine had discovered a radium deposit almost a decade earlier, and a small village known as Port Radium sprung up to service it. Jackson eagerly accepted the invitation, and after a few weeks spent painting in Georgian Bay was flown up to Eldorado. He spent six undisturbed weeks working in this remote part of the country where “everything that takes place does it over a thousand miles.”[7] Jackson enjoyed painting both the wilderness of the Barren Lands and the tiny town of Port Radium from a variety of vantage points.

Jackson would return to Port Radium in 1949, a trip he took after completing his final summer teaching at Banff. He was accompanied by geologist Maurice Haycock. The two would return the following year, and Jackson would visit again in 1951, in the company of mining employee John Rennie. By then, Port Radium had become home to roughly 200 people, as well as the Hudson Bay Company and RCMP outposts, a post office, a radio station and other government offices. Dennis Reid writes that Jackson’s “attention would be drawn increasingly to that extensive part of the country that neither contained the soil nor enjoyed the climate to sustain settled life, but that nonetheless drew hardy, adventurous men with its promise of hidden wealth.”[8]

We are pleased to offer two paintings from these later Eldorado trips in this auction: lot 26, Eldorado Mines, Great Bear Lake, 1950 and lot 27, Rock Form Eldorado Mines, September 1949.

UNTITLED (GATINEAU HILLS)

By the 1940s, the Quebec villages that Jackson loved to paint were quickly becoming more modern. He particularly resented the snowmobiles which had become so popular with rural Quebecers, allowing them to access routes that neither car nor horse-drawn carriage could reach. It was the sound he hated most, which shattered the peaceful atmosphere that Jackson so enjoyed painting in. As a result, by the spring of 1948 he had relocated his sketching trips to the Gatineau region near Ottawa. The region would interest him until the end of his life, so much so that his move to Manotick, Ontario in 1955 to be closer to his niece Constance and her family, allowed him easy proximity to the Gatineau region’s “rocky hills rising out of the farmlands, rivers, lakes and old settlements all quite close to Ottawa.”[1]

AUTUMN LANDSCAPE WITH FARM BUILDINGS, CA. 1950

Barns from a former era were of particular interest for A.Y. Jackson, who never tired of their sloped lines, greying wood and sagging beams. Naomi Groves writes: ”A.Y.’s lifelong attachment to barns is so self-evident as seemingly to require little comment… Yet he did not like all barns, not by any means. Not even any old barn. There has to be something special about each barn he honours with permanency in his work.”[10]

The ongoing decay of the nation’s barns was of great concern for Jackson. Wayne Larsen writes that “ramshackle wooden barns and ancient snake fences – the cornerstone of Jackson’s rustic style – were disappearing at an alarming rate, to be replaced by modern farm buildings, straight fences, and paved roads.”[11] Jackson began to avoid villages and towns which were modernising too quickly. In 1941 he wrote: “I wish they would give the old barns a rest and concentrate on toilets and baths.”[12]

The cluster of outbuildings depicted in this lot display all the hallmarks of a prime Jackson rustic scene with the contoured land cushioning the wilting barn, the curvilinear rootline, and the patinaed wood.

About the auction

Held online from May 24-29, 2024, our spring auction of Canadian and International Fine Art brings together exceptional work from around the world. This auction features celebrated Canadian artists such as Cornelius Krieghoff, A.Y. Jackson, P.C. Sheppard, A.J. Casson, Bertram Booker, Alexandra Luke, Jean Paul Lemieux and Yves Gaucher as well as important First Nations artists Norval Morrisseau, Roy Thomas and Alex Janvier. International highlights include work by Jules Olitski, Karel Appel, Kwon Young-Woo, Norman Bluhm, Józef Bakoś, Léon Lhermitte and Montague Dawson.

Previews will be available at our Toronto gallery, located at 275 King Street East, Second Floor, Toronto:

 Thursday, May 23 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
 Friday, May 24 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
 Saturday, May 25 from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
 Sunday, May 26 from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm
 Monday, May 27 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
 Tuesday, May 28 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Or by appointment.

Please contact us to find out more.

[1] A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1967), 76.
[2] A.Y. Jackson, foreword to Percy J. Robinson, The Georgian Bay (Toronto: privately printed, 1966), 3.
[3] Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: The Life of the Landscape Painter, (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009), 334.
[4] Naomi Groves, A.Y.’s Canada (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1968), 208.
[5] Dennis Reid, Alberta Rhythm: The Later Work of A.Y. Jackson (exh. cat.) (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982), 13.
[6] Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: The Life of the Landscape Painter (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009), 334.
[7] Naomi Groves, A.Y.’s Canada (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1968), 208.
[8] Dennis Reid, Alberta Rhythm: The Later Work of A.Y. Jackson (exh. cat.) (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982), 13.
[9] A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1967), 156.
[10] Naomi Groves, A.Y.’s Canada (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1968), 76.
[11] Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: The Life of the Landscape Painter (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2009), 433.
[12] Groves, 78.