J.E.H. MacDonald was born in Durham, England and in 1887 immigrated to Canada, settling in Hamilton, Ontario. He studied art at the Hamilton Art School and the Central Ontario School of Art and Design, Toronto.
In 1895, MacDonald joined the design department at Grip Ltd., the commercial art firm where he worked until 1911. It was at this time that Lawren Harris persuaded MacDonald to start painting full time. Harris had seen MacDonald's paintings at one of the Arts and Letters Club exhibitions in Toronto.
MacDonald's interest in sketching the rugged Canadian landscape resulted in many excursions throughout Quebec and Ontario, including St. Jovite and Algonquin Park. He also accompanied Harris, Jackson and other of the artists on many sketching trips. MacDonald participated in the famed "boxcar" trips to the Algoma region. The large panoramic paintings resulting from the boxcar trips are among MacDonald's most accomplished works. He also travelled throughout the Rockies and produced many memorable paintings of this mountainous landscape.
This biography on J.E.H. MacDoanld is from the McMichael Art Gallery`s website.
