Jackson, A. Y.

Jackson, A. Y. ( Alexander Young Jackson) (b Montreal, 3 Oct. 1882; d Kleinburg, Ontario, 5 Apr. 1974). Canadian landscape painter, active mainly in Toronto, where he settled in 1913 after extensive travels in Europe. He was one of the leading artists in the Group of Seven and in the later years of his long career became a venerated senior figure in Canadian painting. Jackson visited virtually every region of Canada, including the Arctic, and responded particularly to the hilly region of rural Quebec along the St Lawrence River. From 1921 he returned there almost every spring, and the canvases he prepared from sketches made there are probably his finest work. Their easy, rolling rhythms, and rich and full colouring had a major impact on Canadian landscape painting.