River Bend, Duhamel Quebec

About River Bend, Duhamel Quebec

This oil painting is a landscape by AY Jackson of the Group of Seven.

Alexander Young Jackson is a legacy artist-- a founding member and the ‘force and inspiration’ behind the modern movement within the renowned Group of Seven and as such he was a major player in Canada's art scene.
Known for his bold, contemporary style, Jackson’s landscapes were rendered in rich, vivid colours with expressive impressionistic brushstrokes. This beautiful landscape captures a view of a river winding its way through the rugged forests of eastern Quebec. The land is awash in autumn colours—burnt orange, cranberry red, dark green, earth tones, yellow and white that play against the deep blue of the water, the land reflected in it. A clear bright blue sky frames the view.

“The country is glorious but its beauties are unknown, and waiting for a real live artist to splash them onto canvas.” A. Y. Jackson

A.Y. Jackson was born in Montreal in 1882. He began his formal art studies in 1898 at Montreal’s Monument National then at the Art Association of Montreal. He also trained in Paris and Chicago. In 1913, Jackson met future Group of Seven members J.E.H. MacDonald and Arthur Lismer at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, and later, Lawren Harris. Thanks to patron Dr. James MacCallum, he was able to paint for a full year sharing studio space in 1914 with Tom Thomson. In 1915, Jackson served in World War I and was assigned as an artist after being wounded. In 1919, he participated in the first Group boxcar trip to Algoma. Jackson was a founding member of the Group of Seven and in 1933 its successor, the Canadian Group of Painters. Jackson spent his last years living in an apartment at the McMichael Canadian Collection at Kleinburg, where he died in 1974. He is buried there with 5 of the original Group of Seven members.