signed lower left; titled verso; “S. Walter Stewart” stamp verso
Provenance: Former collection of S. Walter Stewart, Toronto ON; Former collection of John Shillington Dowsett and Maxie Dowsett (Stewart), Copper Cliff ON (later Toronto); private collection, Calgary AB.
In his autobiography (pp 159-160), A. Y. Jackson describes his first meeting with Walter Stewart, his impressions of the young student, and his subsequent close relationship with the Stewart family, a relationship tha spanned many decades.
Literature: “A Painter’s Country: The Autobiography of A. Y. Jackson”; Alexander Young Jackson with forward by Naomi Jackson Groves; Irwin & Company Ltd.; Toronto; 1976.
On pages 35-37 of “A Painter’s Country”, A. Y. Jackson describes his first trip to the Canadian West, in 1914. J. W. (Bill) Beatty had secured a commission for the two artists to paint in the construction camps of the Canadian Northern Railway, which was then laying track through the Rockies. The sketches were to be developed later into promotional material, though were never used for this purpose, as the railway went bankrupt during the war.
Base camp was in the Yellowhead Pass, at the lowest crossing point of the Continental Divide, on the boundary of Jasper National Park (Alberta) and Mount Robson Provincial Park (British Columbia). Jackson recounts, “Working from the tracks was not very exciting, so I took to climbing the mountains”. Concerned about the danger, the chief engineer arranged for Jackson to always be accompanied on these extended excursions. Jackson recounts:
“We had good times in the mountains, and exciting ones. We took many chances, sliding down snow slopes with only a stick for a brake, climbing over glaciers without ropes, and crossing rivers too swift to wade, by felling trees across them.”
A. Y. Jackson would return to the Rocky Mountains again later in his career. Though his adventurous spirit and “road-less-travelled” approach to plein air painting, was exemplified on many of his sketching trips – trips that often took him to remote parts of the country. This work depicts a view of Mount Fitzwilliam, captured from a high perspective, looking across what is now known as Yellowhead Lake. While the first exhibition of the Group of Seven did not come until 1920, Jackson’s unique approach to capturing and painting the Canadian landscape was certainly evident in this rare, early work.
Note: Lisa Chistensen, author of numerous Canadian art books will be including this work in her yet-to-be-released publication “100 Years of the Group of Seven in the Mountains of Canada”.
