A. Y. Jackson
Once ridiculed by critics, Canadian painter A.Y. Jackson is now considered the pioneer of modern landscape art. He is also the founder of the famous Canadian Group of Seven.
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The first time A.Y. Jackson and his artist friends had a show of their paintings, critics called them “the product of a deranged mind.” It’s a good thing that Jackson believed in himself and his abilities; otherwise, he might not have gone on to be one of the most successful and respected artists in Canadian history.
Alexander Young Jackson (everyone called him A. Y.) was born to a poor family in Montreal in 1882. His father abandoned them when he was young, and A.Y. had to go to work at age twelve to help support his brothers and sisters.
Working in a print shop, he became interested in art, and eventually, he saved up enough money to travel and study in Europe.
After returning to Canada, he began to paint landscapes in a fresh new style. Other young artists took notice, and A.Y. Jackson soon had a group of friends who not only loved to paint, but also aspired to change the traditional way in which landscapes were painted.
Jackson had faith in himself and his fellow artists; he felt they could turn the art world on its head. He and several other artists decided to try an unusual experiment. Traveling by train, and living together in a boxcar as it rolled across northern Ontario, they painted everything they saw.
The “Group of Seven,” as they called themselves, put the results of the tour together to
create an art show in Toronto in 1920. That was the show where the critics called the paintings “art gone mad.”
But this did not deter A. Y.; he was convinced that the Group of Seven was on to something great. He kept painting, traveling, and exhibiting, and although it took many years, his modern style started to catch on and his work became increasingly popular.
By the time he died in 1974 at the age of eighty-two, A.Y. Jackson was acknowledged as a painting genius and a pioneer of modern landscape art. He and the other painters of the Group of Seven are among the most famous artists in Canadian history, with an entire museum and art gallery dedicated to their work.
Jackson could have chosen to listen to the critics and given up his bold new ideas, but he remained confident and followed his dream.