James Edward Hervey MacDonald
(1873 - 1932) Group of Seven, OSA, RCA
Previously Sold Works
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Birch Canoe
etching
inscribed “J.E.H. MacDonald”, “T.M.”, titled, dated 1915, and numbered 9/12 in the lower margin
3 x 2.5 ins ( 7.6 x 6.4 cms ) ( plate size )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $2,360.00
Sale date: February 20th 2019
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Botanical Still Life
pencil drawing
initialed and dated 1896 upper right; inscribed “Work of J.E.H. MacDonald” lower left
6.75 x 4.75 ins ( 17.1 x 12.1 cms ) ( overall )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $1,610.00
Sale date: June 13th 2018
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Mountains Near Wapta, 1928
graphite drawing
signed, titled, dated 1928 and certified by Thoreau MacDonald (with initials)
6 x 10 ins ( 15.2 x 25.4 cms )
Auction Estimate: $1,500.00 - $2,000.00
Price Realized $1,652.00
Sale date: June 5th 2019
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Mist Fantasy
sampson-matthews silkscreen
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms )
Auction Estimate: $300.00 - $400.00
Price Realized $1,680.00
Sale date: February 23rd 2021
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Mist Fantasy
sampson-matthews silkscreen
title printed in the margin; unframed
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $300.00 - $400.00
Price Realized $1,440.00
Sale date: August 17th 2021
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Sleeping Priest
pencil drawing
signed on the matting and inscribed “A French Priest on the Train” and dated indistinctly within the composition
4.25 x 6.25 ins ( 10.8 x 15.9 cms )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $1,150.00
Sale date: June 13th 2018
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Untitled (Beaver Pond, Algoma)
woodcut
inscribed “J.E.H. MacDonald” and signed with initials by Thoreau MacDonald
6.5 x 5 ins ( 16.5 x 12.7 cms ) ( plate size )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $1,200.00
Sale date: December 13th 2022
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Sphinx, Cleopatra’s Needle, Thames Embankment, Left
graphite on sketchbook paper
signed lower right with inscription “certified Thoreau MacDonald”; titled and dated 1904 upper right
8 x 4.75 ins ( 20.3 x 12.1 cms ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $1,080.00
Sale date: November 17th 2020
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Beaver Pond
woodcut
inscribed “J. MacD. certified by TM” in the lower margin; unframed (matted)
6.5 x 4.75 ins ( 16.5 x 12.1 cms ) ( image )
Auction Estimate: $300.00 - $400.00
Price Realized $900.00
Sale date: February 28th 2023
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Mist Fantasy
sampson-matthews silkscreen
title printed in the lower margin; unframed
30 x 40 ins ( 76.2 x 101.6 cms )
Auction Estimate: $300.00 - $400.00
Price Realized $840.00
Sale date: April 27th 2021
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Untitled Landscape
pencil on paper
inscribed “Certified by Thoreau MacDonald” lower left
7.5 x 3.5 ins ( 19.1 x 8.9 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $400.00 - $500.00
Price Realized $780.00
Sale date: December 13th 2022
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Beaver Pond, Algoma
woodcut
signed, titled, dated 1920 and inscribed “Best Wishes, T. MacD.” in the lower margin; unframed
6 x 8 ins ( 15.2 x 20.3 cms ) ( sheet )
Auction Estimate: $500.00 - $700.00
Price Realized $660.00
Sale date: November 7th 2023
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Beaver Pond, Algoma
colour block print
inscribed “J.E.H. MacDonald” and “Certified T. MacDonald” in the margin
6.5 x 5 ins ( 16.5 x 12.7 cms ) ( sight )
Auction Estimate: $300.00 - $400.00
Price Realized $561.00
Sale date: April 14th 2020
JAMES EDWARD HERVEY MACDONALD
Church by the Sea
lithograph
signed in the lower margin
5.5 x 6.5 ins ( 14 x 16.5 cms )
Auction Estimate: $700.00 - $900.00
Price Realized $480.00
Sale date: March 23rd 2015
Consignments
We are currently seeking works by J.E.H. MacDonald to be included in future consignment sales.
If you are interested in selling works by James Edward Hervey MacDonald or want to get our opinion of value click here for more information or submit your artwork for sale.
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.