signed lower right; titled & dated “Sept 1943” verso
Provenance: Gainsborough Galleries, Calgary AB
Reference: “A Painter’s Country, The Autobiography of A. Y. Jackson” (Clarke, Irwin & Co. Ltd.; 1958)
A. Y. Jackson had an early Alberta connection, first visiting and sketching in the province circa 1914 along the Jasper/Mt. Robson border. Jackson regularly travelled to Southern Alberta to visit his elder brother Ernest, a judge, who lived in Lethbridge from 1906. While the landscape intrigued him, the artist noted the challenges of the Alberta landscape, and it was not until the fall of 1937, that the he embarked on his first major sketching trip in the province. In 1943, A.Y. Jackson accepted a summer teaching post at the Banff School of Fine Arts, a position he held until 1949. This position afforded Jackson a regular opportunity to paint the Alberta landscape, and his work from this period includes depictions of foothills, ranchlands, mountains and small towns.
In the chapter titled “Painting in the West” (pp. 146-153) of his autobiography, A. Y. Jackson discusses his time in the province and gives interesting insights into the landscape, from his artist’s perspective. He notes (pp. 146-7):
“In recent years the cowboy has almost disappeared and the West has become completely mechanized. However, the foothills of Alberta, with the mountains in the background, afford the artist endless material. The foregrounds are a problem, because so often there is nothing but a few weeds, scrub or stubble to get hold of.”
On pp. 148-9, Jackson reveals his deep understanding of, and connection to, the land he depicts. He provides a glimpse into how, as a mature artist, he is able to extract the visual richness from this Southern Alberta landscape:
“In the early thirties Alberta was beset by the years of drought; one could drive for miles and miles across land without seeing a blade of grass. Russian thistle and dwarf cactus seemed to be all that would grow there. Underneath the burned-up land was wealth untold, which only a few people then visualized. Hills rose from the prairies, range after range of them, and then the mountains rose abruptly out of the hills. Valleys with shallow streams at the bottom cut through the hills. The countryside offered all kinds of motifs for composition.”
