J.E.H. MacDonald (James Edward Hervey MacDonald)

1873-1932

J.E.H. MacDonald was born in Durham, England, and was the son of William Henry MacDonald, a cabinetmaker and native of St-Jean, Quebec. The family came back to Canada in 1887 and settled in Hamilton, Ontario, where MacDonald attended night classes at the Hamilton Art School under John Ireland and Arthur Heming. A few years later they moved to Toronto and MacDonald became an apprentice at the Toronto Lithography Company. In 1893 while still working as an apprentice, he took evening and Saturday classes at the Central Ontario School of Art and Designs under William Cruikshank and G.A. Reid. In 1895 he joined the staff of Grip Engraving Company and worked in the design department. In 1899 he married Harriet Joan Lavis and two years later their son Thoreau was born. At around 1902, MacDonald became associated with the Toronto Art Students' League. His work was revealed to the public through the Toronto Art League Calendar in which some of his pen and ink sketches appeared. In 1903 MacDonald went back to England to work at Carlton Studios in London. After a year his wife and son joined him and they settled in England for three years.

Back in Toronto in 1907, MacDonald rejoined the ranks at the Grip Engraving Company. The family settled near High Park and the Humber Valley where MacDonald did much of his early painting in watercolours and oils. In 1908 he started exhibiting with the Ontario Society of Artists and at the Canadian National Exhibition. At about this time Tom Thomson joined Grip Engraving Co., followed soon after by Frank H. Johnston in 1909. That year, MacDonald was made a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and frequented the newly formed Arts and Letters Club, of which he became a member in 1911. There he met Lawren Harris and Dr. MacCallum, who invited MacDonald and his family to spend the summer of 1910 on his island in Georgian Bay. Later that year MacDonald exhibited his work at the Royal Canadian Academy for the first time and the following year he exhibited at the Arts and Letters Club where Lawren Harris and Dr. James MacCallum persuaded him to devote all of his time to painting. After careful consideration of the matter, MacDonald resigned from the Grip Engraving Co. in the winter of 1911 but would still work as a freelance designer until 1921. By now, Arthur Lismer and Franklin Carmichael had been hired at Grip, and were followed by Frederick H. Varley in 1912. All of the artists mentioned above frequented the Arts and Letters Club and painted together on occasional sketching trips. Finally, this group of artists met A.Y. Jackson through MacDonald and by now all the key members of the Group of Seven had met one another.

In 1912, MacDonald exhibited once more at the Ontario Society of Artists. That same year he again visited Dr. MacCallum’s cottage in Georgian Bay and during the following years, he made many sketching trips with Lawren Harris in the areas of Burks Falls and the Magnetawan River (1912), in the Mattawa area (1913) and the Outaouais region (1914). In 1914, MacDonald and his family moved to a farm in Thornhill, Ontario. On that year year the Studio Building was completed, which Lawren Harris and Dr. MacCallum financed and built in Toronto for promising artists. MacDonald moved into The Studio and was now in the company of sympathetic artists and in ideal studio conditions. Other artists present in the Studio Building were Curtis Williamson, J.W. Beatty, Arthur Heming, Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson. In March of 1914, MacDonald and J.W Beatty joined A.Y. Jackson in Algonquin Park where they sketched for ten days. Jackson himself had been inspired to visit the Park by the stories of Tom Thomson.

In 1915, MacDonald exhibited at the Ontario Society of Artists and the National Gallery of Canada acquired one of his paintings. In 1916, MacDonald was busy on war posters and a series of sketches of his garden at Thornhill entitled "Tangled Garden", all of which were painted with a burst of colours. He later started from these sketches to execute some larger works that were then exhibited at the Ontario Society of Artists annual show. All the works were vehemently criticized by critics but MacDonald replied to his critics in the Toronto Globe and in so doing became a natural choice of spokesman for the "Algonquin Group", name by which the group of artists was known then. That winter, MacDonald completed a commission with Lismer and Thomson, painting decorative wall panels for the living room of the MacCallum's cottage as a surprise for Mrs. MacCallum.

On July 8, 1917, Tom Thomson was seen for the last time on Canoe Lake. Eight days later his body was discovered. The shock of Thomson's death fell hard on all the "Algonquin Group". MacDonald and Beatty joined Dr. MacCallum in stamping identification marks on Thomson's sketches with a newly-designed studio stamp. MacDonald designed a brass inscription plate while Beatty erected Thomson’s cairn by stacking boulders which he cemented together. The plate with MacDonald's inscription was then mounted on the front of the cairn facing Canoe Lake. Soon afterwards, MacDonald suffered a stroke due to his overwork, financial worries and weak constitution which had troubled him most of his life. In addition to it all, MacDonald felt a deep sense of loss for his close friend Tom Thomson whom he had encouraged to artistic maturity from the earliest days at Grip. He had to give up all his regular activities for a number of months but started writing poems, some of which were published in various publications.

By late 1918, MacDonald had recovered sufficiently to participate in the first boxcar sketching trip to the Algoma area organized by Lawren Harris. Harris had arranged that the boxcar be hooked to a freight or passenger train of the Algoma Central Railway. The boxcar was set up like a studio inside with bunks, bookshelves and a stove. When they had reached a promising location the box-car was left on a siding. On this first trip there were MacDonald, Lawren Harris, Dr. MacCallum and Frank H. Johnston. Following their return in Toronto, the three artists held their first exhibition of Algoma paintings at the Art Gallery of Toronto in May of 1919. The show was made up of 144 works including sixteen large paintings, many of which are now part of the collections of the McMichael and the National Gallery of Canada. Algoma his considered to be MacDonald’s most prolific period and this country seemed to stir his creative spirit. He eventually returned to Algoma on boxcar trips in the autumn of 1919 and 1920 with A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris and Frank H. Johnston and in the spring of 1920 with Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer.

While the storm of criticism raged on, Harris, Jackson, Lismer, and Johnston worked with great excitement in the Studio Building. In 1920 the Group of Seven was formed and they held their first exhibition in May of that year. The founding members were Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Frederick H. Varley, Frank H. Johnston, Frank Carmichael, A.Y. Jackson and MacDonald who, at forty-seven years of age, was the eldest of the Group. Three other artists from Montreal exhibited with them on this occasion: R.S. Hewton, Robert Pilot and Albert Robinson.

In 1921, MacDonald was appointed Instructor of decorative and commercial design at the Ontario College of Art. In 1922, he visited Petite-Rivière, Nova Scotia, and painted many sketches from which he did larger canvases. In 1923, MacDonald became art editor of Canadian Forum and also general designer for the decoration of St. Anne's Church in Toronto. He did some of the murals himself but other artists also worked with him including Florence Wyle, Frank Carmichael, H.S. Palmer, F.H. Varley, MacDonald's son Thoreau and others.

In August of 1924, MacDonald made his first trip to the Rocky Mountains and did so every August until 1930. By this time, his teaching took up most of his time and he did not produce many large works during this period but he created a treasure of sketches, many of which are in the Collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 1928, MacDonald became Acting Principal at the Ontario College of Art and visited New York for the first time. The following year he was appointed Principal at the Ontario College of Art when G.A. Reid retired and he designed the mosaic decoration for the Concourse Building in Toronto. In 1931, MacDonald suffered a stroke and had to drop all of his activities. He went to Barbados for his convalescence and remained there until April of 1932. During his convalescence his interest in painting revived and he did a number of sketches of the Barbados landscape of sea, coastline and tall palm trees. He returned to Toronto in March of 1932 and resumed his duties at the Ontario College of Art. On November 22nd he suffered a second stroke while in his office at the College and died four days later at the young age of 59.

Because of the loss of founding member J.E.H. MacDonald, geographical dispersion and diverging interest, the remaining members of the Group of Seven disband. Soon after A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris went on to create the Canadian Group of Painters. Following his death, retrospective shows were held on MacDonald’s work, notably at the Art Gallery of Toronto (1933, 1965), the Art Gallery of Hamilton (1957), and at the National Gallery of Canada (1966).

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, ON)
- Musée d,Art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS)
- Edmonton Art Gallery (Edmonton, AB)
- Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
- Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, NB)
- The Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)
- Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, ON)
- MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regine, SK)
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- Glenbow Museum (Calgary, AB)
- Museum London (London, ON)
- Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff, AB)
- Canadian War Museum (Ottawa, ON)
- Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Firestone Art Collection (Ottawa, ON)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)

Affiliations:

- Ontario Society of Artists (1908)
- Arts and Letters Club (1911)
- Group of Seven (1920)
- Royal Canadian Academy