Footnotes

• PROVENANCE
  Private Collection (acquired from the artist's studio).
  By descent from the above to the present owner.
  
  Capturing the majestic expanse and grandeur of the untamed Canadian wilderness, the works of Alexander Young Jackson (1882-1974) translate the movement and visual play of Impressionism with that of a new subject: the North American continent. Inspired by the frontier-esque atmosphere, Jackson and a select group of Canadian painters founded the Group of Seven. This artist collective strived to establish a Canadian School of painting that not only built on the practices of its counterparts across the Atlantic, but more so evoked a national painterly style and expression that celebrated the wild and untamed.
  
  Having trained in Paris, Jackson's familiarity with the momentary and transient effects of light and nature are thus readily seen in the work St. Lawrence, Early Spring. Influenced particularly by Pissarro and Sisley, Jackson paints without hesitation and captures the crispness that surrounds the rolling hills, billowing grass, and glittering snow of the Canadian countryside. This modern take on the landscape tradition teems with the emotion and mystery of the unknown, coupling color and light with atmospheric presence and a sense of immediacy.
  
  One of Jackson's painterly talents was that of expressing the emotive harsh realities of nature, and with the onset of World War I, he served as an official war artist, painting the fragile condition of humanity. After the war, he continued to teach and paint, playing an influential role in the modern art scene throughout Toronto and Montreal. His legacy, seen in St. Lawrence, Early Spring, is that of expressive honesty and respect for one's cultural milieu and in effect the perspective it imparts upon each of us.
  
  
  
  
  "The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity" – Walt Whitman

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Category: Fine Art / Impressionist and Modern Art

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