Artwork by Alexander Young Jackson,  Gaspé Shoreline

A.Y. Jackson
Gaspé Shoreline

oil on canvas
signed lower right; titled on an exhibition label on the reverse
20.25 x 25.25 ins ( 51.4 x 64.1 cms )

Auction Estimate: $60,000.00$40,000.00 - $60,000.00

Price Realized $45,600.00
Sale date: June 8th 2023

Provenance:
Family of the Artist
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto
Exhibited:
Women's Committee, Toronto, 1956
“Royal Canadian Academy of Arts”, Art Gallery of Toronto, 16 November 1957, no. 38
A.Y. Jackson’s great sense of adventure carried him from the east coast across Canada to the Rocky Mountains of the west. This canvas depicts a winter shoreline landscape from a trip to the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec. Jackson sent four letters to his cousin Margaret, the original owner of this work, describing the timeline of its completion and logistics surrounding its early exhibition history. These letters have been passed down to the present owner and are included with this lot. The first letter is dated 22 May 1956, where Jackson writes: “I have almost finished a canvas‒Gaspé, a dock, snow, a sleigh, motor boat, etc., did you want it, I might send it to the Womens’ Committee.”

By autumn of the same year, it appears that the artwork was completed and already in the possession of his cousin in Toronto. In a letter dated 14 September, the artist wrote “I may want to reproduce your canvas of the Gaspé shore line. Do you mind? Enclosed you will find three labels for the sketches to go to the Womens’ Committee.”

The following year, Jackson sent Margaret another letter, where he requested she send the painting to another exhibition. The artist wrote on 27 August 1957: “Do you mind sending the canvas I painted of Gaspé to the Royal Canadian Academy exhibition which opens at the Art Gallery of Toronto on Nov 16th, I have nothing finished here. It may not be accepted as there is an awful lot of work sent in and they hang only about seventy canvases. I am enclosing the label to go on the back of the frame. It should be left at the gallery early in October. 9th of October is the last day. [...] Best wishes to you all, Cousin Alex”.

The artwork was in fact included in the RCA show, as noted on the canvas’ gallery label on the reverse. On December 4th following the exhibition, Margaret received yet another letter from her cousin requesting that she send it to a new show, where Jackson wrote “The Gaspé canvas is to go to Halifax if you don’t mind. You can hang the Bellefleur until it returns.”

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Alexander Young Jackson
(1882 - 1974) Group of Seven, Canadian Group of Painters, OSA, RCA

Born in Montreal, Alexander Young Jackson left school at the age of twelve and began work at a Montreal printing firm. In 1906, he undertook art studies at the Art Institute in Chicago. The following year he enrolled at the Académie Julian where he studied under Jean Paul Laurens for six months, then he travelled to Italy with others where they visited galleries in Rome, Florence and Venice. They returned to France and Jackson went to the village of Episy with a fellow student named Porter with whom he had lived in Paris. Jackson found much to paint at Episy: old farms, rolling country, the canal where barges were towed by mules, and for the first time (in France) he lived with people close to the land.

He left France when his funds were low and returned to Canada in 1910 where the “clear crisp air and sharp shadows” of Sweetsburg, Quebec, became the subject of his canvas “Edge of the Maple Wood”. During this period his painting was strongly influenced by the Impressionists. Then the work of Canadian artists Cullen and Morrice led him further in the discoveries of snow and other elements of Canadian subject matter which were to become an integral part of his work throughout his life. After his return to Canada, Jackson took up residence in Montreal and made many sketching trips to the surrounding countryside. While at Emileville he received a letter from a J.E.H. MacDonald of Toronto who wanted to purchase his “Edge of the Maple Wood” on behalf of a third party, Lawren Harris. Jackson sold the picture and later met MacDonald in Toronto. In Toronto he also met, through MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley and other members of the Arts and Letters Club who were employed by the Grip Engraving Company as commercial artists. Jackson later went to Georgian Bay to sketch and was visited there by Dr. James MacCallum, a friend of Lawren Harris. MacCallum, who had a summer home at the Bay, offered Jackson a place to work in the ‘Studio Building’ which MacCallum and Lawren Harris were having built for Canadian artists in Toronto. In the meantime Jackson was invited to stay at MacCallum’s summer home. Jackson’s production was good; he did many sketches and a number of canvases, one being the “Maple in the Pine Woods” which was later to bring a storm of criticism at a Group of Seven exhibition.

On his return to Toronto, Jackson stayed at Lawren Harris’ studio in Toronto until the Studio Building was completed. There one day he was introduced to Tom Thomson who had accompanied Dr. MacCallum on a visit. Thomson was also an employee of the Grip Engraving Company. The two moved into the Studio Building in January 1914 and shared a studio. Thomson had soon inspired Jackson to visit Algonquin Park in February and March of 1914. Jackson also sketched that year with J.E.H. MacDonald and J.W. Beatty. In 1915, Jackson enlisted as a private in the 60th Battalion and after being wounded, returned later to the front as Lieutenant with Canadian War Records. As a war artist he created one of the finest collections of war paintings our nation possesses.

In 1919 he went to Algoma with J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris and Franz Johnston, making use of a railway box car as a studio which Harris had arranged. During that year, Jackson became a full member of the Royal Canadian Academy. On May 7th, 1920, the first exhibition of the Group of Seven opened at the Art Gallery of Toronto. The Group continued to exhibit until 1931. Each exhibition of the Group was met with great protest. In July of 1927 Jackson and Dr. Frederick Banting went north on the steamer ‘Beothic’ which had been chartered by the government to deliver supplies to the RCMP posts and to carry relief constables to the posts. They sketched at Pond Inlet, Devon Island, Ellesmere Island and other arctic locations. Jackson’s arctic sketches were exhibited at the Art Gallery of Toronto.

Jackson's great sense of adventure carried him from the east coast across Canada to the Rocky Mountains of the west. He made regular sketching trips to Quebec every spring and travelled to the far regions of Canada during the summer, including the Canadian Arctic. In the fall he would return to the Studio Building in Toronto (where he lived until 1955), spending the winters painting canvases. He continued this active lifestyle until he was in his eighties.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979