J.E.H. MacDonald

James Edward Hervey (J.E.H.) MacDonald (1873–1932) was an English-born Canadian painter, designer, and teacher who became a founding member of the Group of Seven. After emigrating to Canada as a child, he studied art in Toronto and began his career as a commercial designer at Grip Ltd., where he met fellow artists including Tom Thomson and Franklin Carmichael. Inspired by the wilderness of Ontario, MacDonald turned increasingly toward painting, and by the 1910s he was exhibiting landscapes that emphasized bold color, rhythmic brushstrokes, and a deep reverence for nature. His early works, such as The Tangled Garden (1916), signaled a new approach to Canadian landscape painting that broke away from European traditions.

As one of the driving forces behind the Group of Seven’s formation in 1920, MacDonald helped to establish a distinctly Canadian voice in modern art. He was deeply committed to the idea that the wilderness reflected the spirit of the nation, and his paintings of Algoma, Georgian Bay, and the Lake O’ Hara region gave visual form to that belief. Alongside his artistic contributions, MacDonald was a mentor to younger painters and later served as principal of the Ontario College of Art, shaping the next generation of Canadian artists. Though his career was cut short by illness, his legacy as both an artist and educator endures, and he remains celebrated for his lyrical vision of the Canadian landscape.