A. J. Casson

Painter

• Born: May 17, 1898
• Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario
• Died: February 19, 1992
• Place of death: Toronto, Ontario

Contribution: Alfred Joseph “A. J.” Casson was a member of the Group of Seven, an early twentieth-century association of seven landscape painters who iconically depicted the Canadian landscape. He was also a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters, who worked to throw off the constraints of European artistic style and create a truly Canadian style of painting that reflected Canada’s landscape and rugged wilderness. Casson was the last surviving member of the group and died in 1992. He is best remembered for his fine watercolors.

Early Life

Alfred Joseph Casson was born into a Quaker family in Toronto, Ontario, on May 17, 1898. His father was a grocer, and no one in his family had any particular interest in or aptitude for art. Casson attended schools in Toronto, Guelph, and Hamilton. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Hamilton, and Casson began taking art lessons every Saturday from artist John S. Gordon. In 1913, Casson became an apprentice in the Laidlaw Lithography Company in Hamilton.

In 1916, his family moved back to Toronto, and Casson took lessons in watercolor and oil painting from Alfred Howell and Harry Britton. During World War I, Casson began working for a seed catalog, where he retouched the pictures of flowers and vegetables. During this time, Casson began going out into the countryside to create paintings of landscapes near Toronto.

Career in Painting

In 1919, Casson began working at Rous and Mann, a printing company, where he served as an apprentice to Frank Carmichael. Carmichael introduced Casson to members of the Group of Seven, and in 1925, Casson, Carmichael, and artist Fred Brigden formed a group called the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. Casson typically painted watercolors featuring landscapes, lakes, or villages, often with spacious sweeps of sky.

In 1926, Casson joined the Group of Seven, replacing resigning artist Franz Johnston. The Group of Seven, founded in 1920, was a small group of Canadian artists who chafed against the European art traditions that still influenced and directed much of Canadian art. Conventional artists of the time, most of whom were trained in Europe, looked at the Canadian landscape through a European lens. The Group of Seven wanted to take a fresh view, to see Canada in a new way. They painted Canadian scenes with bold, fresh colors, clear draftsmanship, and a modern feel. Their first exhibition was attacked by critics from all sides as “barbaric.”

By the time Casson joined the group, these quarrels had settled down quite a bit, but he was still warned against associating with such a radical and rebellious company. However, Casson managed to join the group and at the same time become a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, one of the most conservative art organizations in Canada. This balancing act was a testament to his mild-mannered, temperate personality.

Casson, as the youngest and most junior member of the group, was initially humbled by the other artists and quietly learned as much as he could from them. Casson was known for his skill with oils and watercolors, and his paintings featured landscapes and buildings. Early in his career, he decided to focus on painting Ontario scenes, realizing that many of the villages and remote towns were rapidly changing and that many of their distinctive buildings and architectural details would soon be gone.

He and the other members of the Group of Seven frequently took long treks into the wilderness throughout Canada, camping and hiking lost trails in search of rugged landscapes worthy of painting. When they came upon a remote lake, they would often name it after an art critic. If the lake was sparkling clear and beautiful, they named it for a critic who liked their work; marshy, mucky, odorous lakes were named after detractors. Ironically, Casson eventually had a lake named after him in Ontario.

Later Career and Personal Life

In 1927, Casson joined Sampson Matthews, a commercial design company, where he ultimately became vice president. Casson married his wife, Margaret Petry, in 1929; they would eventually have a daughter. While employed at Sampson Matthews, Casson continued to create fine art paintings in addition to commercial art; however, unlike many fine artists, he remained proud of his commercial work, noting that the money he earned from it helped him and his family through the Great Depression.

During World War II, Casson produced many posters exhorting people to buy savings bonds or join the armed forces. He was unable to devote himself to fine art full-time until he retired from the printing business in 1959 at age sixty-one.

The Group of Seven disbanded in 1932, but Casson and the other members continued to paint. Casson’s style remained consistent throughout his lifetime, as he avoided becoming involved in trends in art. He took pride in the quality of his workmanship and created paintings that would last, even when demand for his work was high, and other artists did not bother to use high-quality, long-lasting canvases or materials.

Memberships

Casson became a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters. From 1940 to 1945, he served as president of the Ontario Society of Artists. He was also chair of the Royal College of Art, vice president of the Art Gallery of Toronto, and chair of the art committee for the O’Keefe Centre in Toronto. In 1973, he was made a fellow of the Ontario College of Art. In 1979, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Although Casson achieved some recognition during his lifetime, and one of his paintings once sold for $100,000, many critics continued to lump him in with the Group of Seven as a junior member, as his modest, subtle style did not demand attention. However, his paintings, particularly iconic ones such as Anglican Church at Magnetawan (1933), White Pine (1957), and Mist, Rain and Sun (1958), have been reprinted many times and are deeply familiar to Canadians. Many of these reproductions hang in schoolrooms and other public places throughout the country, contributing to Canadians’ sense of heritage and landscape.

In the 1970s, Casson worked with Ontario police to track down fake paintings attributed to the Group of Seven. The fakes, when found, were locked up so they could never be sold. Casson found it amusing that the Group of Seven had, over time, gone from being reviled to being so valued that their works were faked.

Casson died on February 19, 1992, at the age of ninety-three.

Principal Works

The North Wind, 1920

Approaching Storm, Lake Superior, 1930

Anglican Church at Magnetawan, 1933

Summer Sun, 1945

White Pine, 1957

Mist, Rain and Sun, 1958

Bibliography

“A. J. Casson.” National Gallery of Canada. National Gallery of Canada, n.d. Web. 26 July 2013.

Dulwich Picture Gallery. Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. London: Wilson, 2011. Print.

Jackson, Christopher E. A. J. Casson: An Artist’s Life. Vaughan: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1998. Print.

King, Ross. Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven. Madeira Park: Douglas, 2011. Print.

McKay, Marylin J. Picturing the Land: Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500–1950. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2011. Print.