J.E.H. MacDonald

J.E.H. Macdonald, a Canadian landscape painter born in England in 1873. He immigrated with his family to Canada at the age of 14 and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. He then studied at the Hamilton School of Art. In 1889, the family moved to Toronto and the young J.E.H. Macdonald continued his studies at the Ontario School of Art. He became a member of the Toronto Art Student League.

In 1895, he began a position as a designer at the commercial art firm Grip Ltd. He works with his friend Tom Thompson who encourages and develops his interest in painting. In 1911, Lawren Harris convinced J.E.H Macdonald to become a professional painter and they organized their first exhibition.

Following a trip to the United States to visit an exhibition on Impressionist landscapes, they return strongly influenced by the nordic landscape. The essence of the future Group of Seven was born. Until the official founding of the Group of Seven, J.E.H. Macdonald, Harris, Thompson, and others regularly went to the district of Algoma to make sketches.

In 1924, the Group of Seven was well established and Macdonald began a yearly journey to the Canadian Rockies to paint the mountains. However, Macdonald no longer recognizes himself in the Group of Seven, his compatriots gradually adopt a more abstract and aesthetic approach to the landscape.

From 1922 until his death, he was a full-time teacher at the Ontario College of Art, which caused him to move away from production for several months a year.

He died in Toronto at the age of 59 in 1932. J.E.H. Macdonald is the author of the collection of poetry West-East that will be published posthumously.

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