Alfred Joseph Casson

Notes:

signed recto; titled verso and on the gallery label; inscribed verso with Casson’s Toronto address and “1936 Travelling Show”
Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB; Former collection of A. J. Casson

“If I have to define my own contribution to the Canadian Art Scene, what was particularly mine were really the rural villages and houses. In a way, it is a record of a disappearing society and a disappearing world. For me it was always an Ontario quest.” – A. J. Casson.

Casson, the youngest member of the Group of Seven, was introduced to the original members at the Arts and Letters Club in 1920 by Franklin Carmichael. While he soon became a regular at the Club, and an invited contributor to the Group shows, it was not until 1925 that he was invited to sketch with the Group on a trip to Lake Superior. The following year, Casson accepted the Group’s invitation to join them, bringing the membership back to seven, several years after Frank Johnston’s departure. In 1926, Casson also joined the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a prestigious accomplishment for an artist only 28 years old. It is particularly remarkable that the young Casson was able to gain the acceptance and respect of both the old and new worlds of Canadian art society.

While an important member of the Group of Seven, Casson was always somewhat removed from the Group, and preferred to set his work apart from that of other members. He was most aligned with Carmichael, his mentor and friend. The artists shared a similar vision and interests, and additionally, both worked full-time (a practice Casson continued until his retirement). Yet there came a time when Casson even stopped painting with Carmichael, a step he needed to take in order to be able to fully realize his own, distinct artistic style.

Today, Casson’s work is easily recognizable and well-loved by Canadian art collectors. Casson’s design background is evident in his graceful and streamlined compositions, and in his adept manipulation of pattern, light and colour. These elements come together to create landscapes that seem to move. A notable hallmark of Casson’s work is “his interpretation of the subtle variations of summertime green”. This painting exemplifies not only Casson’s distinct sensibility but the subject matter most dear to his heart. Casson spent much of the 1930s painting the gentler, civilized, southern Ontario landscapes, preserving for posterity “the pastoral pioneering Ontario that has vanished in the face of a noisier urban world.”

*Excerpts from: “The McMichael Canadian Art Collection” (1989) and “A.J. Casson” (Art Gallery of Windsor; 1978).

Notes:

signed lower right; signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: Roberts Gallery, Toronto, ON (label verso); Canadian Fine Arts, Toronto, ON (label verso)

Casson, the youngest member of the Group of Seven, was introduced to the original members at the Arts and Letters Club in 1920 by Franklin Carmichael. While he soon became a regular at the Club, and an invited contributor to the Group shows, it was not until 1925 that he was invited to sketch with the Group on a trip to Lake Superior. In 1926, Casson agreed to join the Group, bringing membership back to seven (after Frank Johnston’s departure). That same year, Casson was admitted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, a prestigious accomplishment for an artist only 28 years old. It is a notable that Casson was able to gain the acceptance and respect of both the old and new worlds of Canadian art society.

While an important member of the Group of Seven, Casson was always somewhat removed from the Group, and preferred to set his work apart from that of other members. While most aligned with Carmichael, with whom he shared a similar vision and interests, there came a time when Casson even stopped painting with Carmichael; this is a step he felt necessary in order to to fully realize his own, distinct artistic style.

A. J. Casson’s easily recognizable work is well-loved by Canadian art collectors. His design background is evident in his graceful, streamlined compositions, as is his skillful manipulation of pattern, light and colour, creating landscapes that seem to move. Casson is unique within the Group of Seven, focusing on painting the gentler, civilized, southern Ontario landscapes. Of his role in Canadian Art, Casson says:

“If I have to define my own contribution to the Canadian art scene, what was particularly mine were really the rural villages and houses. In a way, it is a record of a disappearing society and a disappearing world. For me it was always an Ontario quest.”
(“A.J. Casson” ; Art Gallery of Windsor; 1978)

Notes:

signed lower right; signed, titled & dated verso and on the artist’s label
Provenance: Roberts Gallery, Toronto ON; Collection Claude Courcy, Montreal QC; Peter Ohler Fine Arts, Vancouver BC

Toronto born A.J. Casson received his early artistic training at Hamilton Technical School, subsequently apprenticing at the Laidlaw Lithography Company. When his family moved back to Toronto, in 1915, he worked as a freelance designer while attending evening art classes at Central Technical School. His work was first exhibited publicly in 1917, at the Canadian National Exhibition. In 1919, Casson accepted a position at the prominent Toronto firm Rous and Mann Publishing, as Franklin Carmichael’s assistant. Carmichael, who became his greatest influence, encouraged the young artist, took him on sketching trips, and introduced him to the Arts and Letters Club. Casson soon became an invited contributor to the Group of Seven shows and, in 1926, he was invited to join the Group, replacing Franz Johnston who had only exhibited in the Group’s first exhibition. That same year, Casson became an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy, and left Rous & Mann for the Sampson Matthews Company. Casson, who had a strong sense of design and leadership, eventually became Art Director and Vice President. While he continued to paint extensively, Casson only became a full-time artist upon his retirement from the firm in 1957.

A. J. Casson’s design and illustration background is evident in his work, and integral to his evolution as an artist and to the development of his distinct artistic style. His works are amongst the most recognizable and beloved of Canadian collectors. Casson is particularly identified with his Ontario landscapes, noted for their graceful and streamlined composition, and for his carefully considered manipulation of pattern, light and colour.

A. J. Casson was a passionate and avid promoter of Canadian art, and was very active in the artistic community over his long and distinguished career. He served as president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1948-52), president of the Ontario Society of Artists (1941-44) and sat on several boards including what is now the Art Gallery of Ontario (1955-59). He was also instrumental in founding the Canadian Group of Painters, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, and in instigating the WWII war artist’s program.

Notes:

signed, titled & dated
Provenance: Roberts Gallery Ltd., Toronto

Notes:

signed lower right; signed, titled & dated verso

Oxtongue Lake, located in the Algonquin Highlands near Huntsville, Ontario, was visited frequently by the Group of Seven members during sketching trips. The location was among one of A.J. Casson’s favourite places to paint. In “A.J. Casson” (Gage Publications; 1976) the artist comments on his familiarity with the location: “If you ask me to paint a picture of Oxtongue Lake with one of the islands, I could sit down and do it right now”. Over the course of three decades, Casson regularly stayed at the Blue Spruce Resort on Oxtongue Lake, with his wife, Margaret. The resort served as a base for many sketching excursions of the lake and surrounding area.

Today, the Oxtongue Lake community showcases the artistic significance of the area at the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson Outdoor Exhibit. Additionally, a commemorative trail around the lake features a series of “plaques of honour”, depicting various works painted in the area by this important group of artists. This work, “The Bay, Oxtongue Lake”, painted by Casson in 1982 along the shore at Blue Spruce Resort, is depicted on the site of the resort as Plaque 6.

An intimate photo of A. J. Casson, taken in 1991, seated in his home and holding “The Bay, Oxtongue Lake” is stored within an envelope attached to the back of the painting.

Notes:

signed recto; signed & titled verso
Provenance: Masters Gallery, Calgary, AB (label verso)

In 1926 Casson was invited to join the Group of Seven following the departure of Franz Johnston. Casson was introduced to the Group by Franklin Carmichael, for whom Casson worked as an apprentice at Rous & Mann and whom he followed to Sampson- Matthews (where Casson would go on to become art director and vice-president). Casson’s design and illustration career was integral to the development of his art and to defining his style: the streamlined design; the simplification of form; the careful orchestration of lines and patterns. These elements were key to Casson’s sensibility. Though above all else, at his essence, Casson was a painter of the Canadian landscape. Known for his depictions of of Ontario’s forests and farmlands, here, Casson returns to the roots of the Group, a quintessential image of Algonquin Park on a characteristic small panel. Algonquin Park, with its quiet and rugged beauty, was an area originally introduced by Tom Thomson, and to which the Group became so connected that they contemplated the name “Algonquin School”.

Casson was perhaps the most passionate and avid promotor of this school of Canadian art. He was very active in the artistic community over a long, distinguished career. He served as president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1948-52), president of the Ontario Society of Artists (1941-44) and sat on several boards including what is now the Art Gallery of Ontario (1955-59). He was also instrumental in founding the Canadian Group of Painters, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour, and in instigating the WWII war artist’s program.