Alexander Young Jackson 1882 - 1974

Private Collection, Toronto

Alexander Young Jackson, A Painter's Country, The Autobiography of A.Y. Jackson, Toronto, 1958, pp. 48 and 31

The double-sided panel has been viewed under UV and it is in excellent condition. THE RIVERSIDE IN AUTUMN exhibits the beginning of a crack in the upper right. Otherwise the work is in very good condition with no paint loss or chips. MOUNTAIN SKETCH is in fair condition as the crack in the panel is more visible and there is some paint loss and scratches. Heavy varnish. We would like to thank "In Restauro Conservart Inc." for examing this painting and their original notes are available upon request to Sotheby's.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Artists would use their available sketching materials when in the wilderness and perhaps on the way home, would come across another scene that would pique their interest and hence would turn over the panel and use the other side. This fine panel is an unusual work for Jackson, not because it is double-sided, as he, Thomson, and Banting frequently used both sides of the wood, but because the two skecthes represent different locations.

Riverside in Autumn is in all probability an Algoma sketch. Jackson painted this colourful region of Ontario's wilderness in the fall of 1919, 1920 and 1921 and in an article for Canadian Forum wrote;

From sunlight in the hardwoods with bleached violet-white tree trunks against a blaze of red and orange, we wander into the denser spruce and pine woods, where the sunlight filters through - gold and silver splashes - playing with startling vividness on a birch trunk or a patch of green moss. Such a subject could change entirely every ten minutes and unless the first impression was firmly adhered to, the skecth would end in confusion.

Jackson first vistied the Rockies within 1914 and stayed in Jasper with J.W. Beatty. They were hired by the Canadian Northern railway which was laying track through the mountains. Jackson wrote;

Working the tracks was not very exciting, so I took to climbing the mountains...we had good times in the mountains and exciting ones. We took many chances, sliding down snow slopes with only a stick for a brake, climbing over glaciers without ropes, and crossing rivers too swift to wade by felling trees across them. I made many sketches that were never used, as the railway which had commissioned them went bankrupt during the war. later, I came to the conclusion that mountains were not in my line, and I kept throwing the skecthes until there was none left.