James Edward Hervey MacDonald

J.E.H Macdonald was known for having a painting style of applying pigments in small strokes of mainly Post-Impressionist colours that merged at a distance into a diffused composition.[1] Batchawana Rapids, Algoma (1919) is one such painting that manifests this artistic style. The location being depicted,  Algoma, became the subject of many paintings later in his career. Beginning in 1919, he frequently visited Algoma with Lawren Harris on their now famous boxcar trips, and over the next five years he entered his most productive phase of painting.[2] MacDonald is also famous for his unique technique of creating a preliminary sketch before painting over with oil paint as seen in Sketch for the Beaver Dam (1919), also painted in Algoma. [3] Like Arthur Lismer (1885 – 1969), MacDonald worked as a graphic designer at Grip Ltd. earlier on in his career after coming to Canada.[4]

 

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[1] Donald W. Buchanan, “Variations in Canadian Landscape Painting,” University of Toronto Quarterly 10, no. 1 (1940): 39–45, https://doi.org/10.3138/utq.10.1.39, 40. 

[2] “J.E.H. MacDonald 1873 - 1932,” Manor Hill Fine Art, accessed March 28, 2024, http://www.manorhillfineart.com/pagefiles/bios/bio_macdonald.html.

[3] “Up Close and Personal with J.E.H. MacDonald’s Artistic Practice,” McMichael Canadian Art Collection (blog), May 16, 2018, https://mcmichael.com/up-close-and-personal-with-j-e-h-macdonalds-artistic-practice/.

[4] Joan Murray, “J. E. H. MacDonald,” March 4, 2015, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/james-edward-hervey-macdonald.