MacDonald, J.E.H.

James Edward Hervey MacDonald, painter (b at Durham, Eng 12 May 1873; d at Toronto 26 Nov 1932).

Among the Group of Seven, of which he was a founder, J.E.H. MacDonald was one of the best trained, first at the Hamilton Art School from about 1887 and, after 1889, in Toronto lithography houses and at the Central Ontario School of Art and Design, where he studied with William Cruikshank. In 1895 he joined Grip Ltd, an important commercial art firm, where he encouraged the staff (which included Tom Thomson from about 1907) to develop as painters. MacDonald was a key member of the later Group. Lawren Harris recalled that a show of MacDonald’s in 1912 at the Ontario Society of Artists gave him his first recognition of the Group’s “ethos.”