JEH MacDonald

Born in Durham, England, James Edward Hervey MacDonald immigrated to Canada in 1887 with his English mother and Canadian father who was a cabinetmaker. He studied at the Hamilton Art School and the Central Ontario School of Art and Design, in Toronto, Ontario. In 1911, McDonald resigned his designer position at Grip Ltd and moved with his wife and son Thoreau to Thornhill, Ontario to pursue a career as a landscape artist.  In 1920, MacDonald co-founded the Group of Seven, which dedicated itself to promoting a distinct Canadian art developed through direct contact with the Canadian landscape. Every summer beginning in 1924, MacDonald traveled to the Canadian Rockies to paint the mountainous landscapes that dominated his later work. Among MacDonald’s most accomplished works are rugged landscapes of the Algoma region, that he worked up from sketches made on trips to northern Ontario (1919-1922). From 1928 until his death MacDonald served as the Principal of the Ontario College of Art. In 1931, he suffered a stroke and spent the following summer recovering in Barbados. He died in Toronto on November 26, 1932 at the age of 59. He was buried at Prospect Cemetery in Toronto.