Alexander Young Jackson 1882 - 1974

S. Walter Stewart Collection, Toronto

Private Collection, Toronto

A.Y. Jackson, A Painter's Country, Toronto, 1958, pp. 159 - 160. Reference to his long friendship with the Stewart family

This work has been viewed under UV light and is in excellent condition. Some of the reds fluoresce under UV. We would like to thank "In Restauro Conservart Inc." for examing this painting and their original notes are available upon request to Sotheby's.
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In 1919, when this sketch was painted, A.Y. Jackson had just returned from his time in Europe during the war where he had heard the shocking news about Tom Thomson's death. They were close friends and their relationship had a profound impact on Jackson's practice as an artist. In conversation, he was known to have said: "I was the teacher and Thomson the student and shortly after, Thomson became the teacher and I was the student".

In a letter to his friend Jim (J.E.H. MacDonald) dated August 14th, 1917, Jackson wrote from Shoreham by Sea:

I have just heard such cruel news which I do hope will become untrue that Tom is drowned in Canoe Lake... To think that while in all this turmoil over here there is a ray of light and that the peace and quietness of the north country should be the scene of such tragedy. It seems like the severing of another tie which bound us to Canada because, without Tom, the north country seems a desolation of bush and rock. He was the guide, the interpreter, and we the guests partaking of his hospitality as generously given. His name is so often coupled with mine in this new movement that it seemed almost like a partnership and it was... While my debt to him is almost that of a new world, the north country, and a truer artist's vision, because as an artist he was really gifted, and now we are so few.

Perhaps this painting is Jackson's homage to Thomson. As Thomson had in some of his most successful sketches, Jackson has designed this brilliant sketch without any recession of space. Every element is presented with immediacy and appears in a luminous light, riveting the eyes of the viewer. The multi-coloured leaves burst forth against a dark background and each leaf is animated with its own gem-like colouration. The result is glorious.

On the reverse of the panel, Jackson has written "Just beginning to feel my oats after the War", as if to acknowledge that this was a special, transitional piece.  When he was asked to contribute to an exhibition by the Ontario Society of Artists where at least one of the works was to be experimental, Jackson sought this panel out from the collection of Walter Stewart.

Autumn, Algoma is unusual among Jackson's wide curvilinear vistas, and it reads more as a floral study of the forest. Jackson has created a masterpiece of excitement, spontaneity and joy for the viewer.