A.Y. Jackson

Jackson, A. Y. (Canadian, 1882-1974)
A. (Alexander) Y. Jackson, born in Montreal, Quebec, was a member of the Group of Seven, a group of artists known for their ground-breaking modernist paintings of the rugged Northern Ontario wilderness. Jackson had a brother who lived in Alberta, and while visiting the province in 1937, he began to paint prairie and mountain landscapes. His connection to Alberta continued into the 1940s when he taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts from 1943 to 1949. A.Y. Jackson painted in south-western Alberta for approximately 20 years.

As Jackson himself said in his 1958 autobiography A Painter’s Country, “…the foothills of Alberta, with the mountains as a backdrop, afford the artist endless material.” Though he eventually acquired much recognition in his own country, it was the purchase of a painting by the Tate Gallery in London, in 1921, which consolidated his position as a painter of international significance.