James Edward Hervey MacDonald
(1873 - 1932) Group of Seven, OSA, RCA
Previously Sold Works
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
On Montreal Lake, Algoma
oil on board
signed, titled and inscribed “October 1919” and “To Lillian Edie, Wishing Her a Happy New Year, 1929” on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $80,000.00 - $100,000.00
Price Realized $288,000.00
Sale date: December 1st 2022
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Tracks and Traffic
oil on board
signed and dated 1912 lower right
7.5 x 10.5 ins ( 19.1 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $200,000.00 - $250,000.00
Price Realized $230,000.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2016
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Lake O’Hara
oil on board
signed and dated 1925 lower left
8.5 x 10.5 in ( 21.6 x 26.7 cm )
Auction Estimate: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00
Price Realized $216,000.00
Sale date: May 30th 2024
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Cedars, Little Turtle Lake, 1922
oil on wood-pulp board
signed, titled and inscribed “Studio Building, 25 Severn St.” on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00
Price Realized $204,000.00
Sale date: June 8th 2023
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Larches, Mountain Lake
oil on board
signed and dated “Sept. 13, 1929” lower right; signed and titled (twice) on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $50,000.00 - $70,000.00
Price Realized $57,600.00
Sale date: June 9th 2021
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay
oil on board
signed, dated 1912 and inscribed “Georgian Bay” & “south point of Dr. McCallum’s island looking west” on the reverse; inscribed with the title, date “Oct. 1912” and certified by Thoreau MacDonald on the reverse
4.25 x 7 ins ( 10.8 x 17.8 cms )
Auction Estimate: $10,000.00 - $15,000.00
Price Realized $55,200.00
Sale date: December 1st 2022
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Morning Sunshine, 1926
oil on wood-pulp board
signed, titled and inscribed “Thornhill June 1926” on the reverse; with monogram “JM”, also certified by Thoreau MacDonald on a label
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $50,000.00 - $70,000.00
Price Realized $52,800.00
Sale date: June 8th 2023
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Agawa Canyon, Algoma
oil on board
signed and titled on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $25,000.00 - $35,000.00
Price Realized $42,480.00
Sale date: November 20th 2018
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Sunset, Lake Simcoe
oil on board
signed with initials lower left
8.5 x 10.25 in ( 21.6 x 26 cm )
Auction Estimate: $25,000.00 - $35,000.00
Price Realized $40,800.00
Sale date: May 30th 2024
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
A Hill Path, High Park
oil on board
signed and dated 1907 lower right
10 x 8 ins ( 25.4 x 20.3 cms )
Auction Estimate: $20,000.00 - $30,000.00
Price Realized $27,600.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2016
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Surf of Fishing Boats, Barbados
oil on board
signed with initials and dated 1932 lower left; signed, titled and dated 1932 on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 in ( 21.6 x 26.7 cm )
Auction Estimate: $15,000.00 - $20,000.00
Price Realized $28,800.00
Sale date: May 30th 2024
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Surf, Barbados, B.W.I.
oil on board
signed with initials lower left; signed, titled and inscribed “Barbados ‘32” on the reverse
8.5 x 10.5 ins ( 21.6 x 26.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $15,000.00 - $20,000.00
Price Realized $21,600.00
Sale date: December 3rd 2020
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Roches Point, Lake Simcoe
oil on board
signed, titled and dated 1920 on the reverse
8 x 10.25 ins ( 20.3 x 26 cms )
Auction Estimate: $12,000.00 - $15,000.00
Price Realized $21,600.00
Sale date: June 9th 2021
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
High Park
oil on board
signed with initials and dated 1911 lower left; inscribed “J.E.H. MacDonald”, titled, dated and certified by Thoreau MacDonald on the reverse
7 x 5 ins ( 17.8 x 12.7 cms )
Auction Estimate: $14,000.00 - $18,000.00
Price Realized $17,700.00
Sale date: May 29th 2018
Consignments
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J.E.H. MacDonald Biography
(1873 - 1932) Group of Seven, OSA, RCA
James Edward Hervey MacDonald, painter was born in Durham, England on 12 May 1873. Among the Group of Seven, of which he was a founder, J.E.H. MacDonald was one of the best trained, first at the Hamilton Art School from about 1887 and, after 1889, in Toronto lithography houses and at the Central Ontario School of Art and Design, where he studied with William Cruikshank. In 1895 he joined Grip Ltd, an important commercial art firm, where he encouraged the staff (which included Tom Thomson from about 1907) to develop as painters. MacDonald was a key member of the later Group. Lawren Harris recalled that a show of MacDonald's in 1912 at the Ontario Society of Artists gave him his first recognition of the Group's "ethos."
MacDonald was Harris's greatest early friend among the Toronto painting community. Together in 1913 they went to the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY, to see the survey of Scandinavian landscape painting which was to influence their work. Around this time MacDonald introduced more colour into his dark panels. Algoma, north of Lake Superior, which he visited several times with Harris's help from 1919, became the country of his heart. His best paintings were done there, often of great vistas in a turbulent, patterned style. The sketch Mist Fantasy, Sand River, Algoma (1920, National Gallery of Canada) shows how he used the sketches he made in Algoma: the finished canvas (1922, now in the Art Gallery of Ontario), with its long ribbons of mist, was noted by a later critic as the height of MacDonald's way of stylizing form. In 1924 he made the first of 7 trips to the Rockies, another favourite painting place.
MacDonald's palette was dark, tough and rich, like A.Y. Jackson's, but his colouring was more fiery and his style more elegant. His sense of composition was oriented towards his meditation on design, a subject in which he was a master (he was the greatest calligrapher of the period and a designer of consequence). Like other members of the Group, he loved Chinese and Japanese art.
Among other tasks he performed was the decoration of St Anne's Church, Toronto (1923), and teaching at the Ontario College of Art. He also wrote poetry after a nervous breakdown in 1917. He was an eccentric gardener and enjoyed playing on a set of chimes made of old plough points. One of his favourite authors was Henry David Thoreau, for whom he named his son, illustrator Thoreau MacDonald. The artist died in Toronto on 26 November 1932.