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Backyard, West Toronto by James Edward Hervey MacDonald

Artwork by James Edward Hervey MacDonald, Backyard, West Toronto

J.E.H. MacDonald
Backyard, West Toronto

oil on board
signed with initials and dated 1912 lower left; signed, titled, dated 1912 and inscribed “Glenlake House” on the reverse
6.25 x 9.25 ins ( 15.9 x 23.5 cms )

Auction Estimate: $15,000.00$12,000.00 - $15,000.00

Price Realized $14,160.00
Sale date: November 20th 2018

Provenance:
Roberts Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Toronto
J.E.H. MacDonald organized the first show of his work at the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto in November 1911; Lawren Harris attended the exhibition and was particularly taken with MacDonald’s landscapes, so much that he asked if they could work together. Harris also convinced MacDonald to take up painting as a full-time career, which led him to resign from his position as a designer at Grip Ltd. in 1912. The two painters began to sketch scenes of Toronto and its environs together; MacDonald’s favourite locations to paint were the Humber Valley and High Park. “Backyard, West Toronto” (1912), an example of the artist’s Toronto scenes of this period, is painted in loose brushstrokes of pastel pigments, evoking MacDonald’s European impressionist influences. This transitionary period signals the drama and atmosphere of the Canadian landscape the artist sought to express in his later Group of Seven period works.

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James Edward Hervey MacDonald
(1873 - 1932) Group of Seven, OSA, RCA

HighlightsWatch Artist

J.E.H. MacDonald was born in Durham, England in 1873 of Canadian parents. He took evening art classes at the Hamilton Art School as a teenager, before relocating to Toronto. In Toronto, he studied at the Central Ontario School of Art. From 1894, he worked as a graphic designer at Grip Ltd. In 1903, he sailed for England and joined Carlton Studios, a London graphic firm. On his return to Canada in 1907 he rejoined Grip and began to paint the landscape near Toronto. Around this time, Tom Thomson joined the Grip staff. Frank H. Johnston joined a short time later. These artists found that they had much in common and began going on sketching trips as a group. In 1910, he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Canadian Academy. By 1912, all the original members of the Group of Seven had met and were sketching quite regularly together. MacDonald was devastated by the accidental drowning of Tom Thomson in 1917. He designed a brass plaque to Thomson's memory which was mounted to a cairn erected at Canoe Lake. The first official Group of Seven exhibition took place in May of 1920. MacDonald accepted a teaching position at the Ontario College of Art in 1921 and was appointed as principal in 1929. He continued to go on painting trips, but his teaching responsibilities sapped his energies and he did few large canvases during this time. He died in Toronto in 1932.