Alexander Young Jackson was best known as one of the members of the Group of Seven, the famous group of Canadian modernist painters. Born in Montreal, he started working at age twelve after his father abandoned the family of six children. The young Jackson went to work as an office boy for a Montreal printing company, where he received his earliest training.

In 1906, he attended art classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. One year later Jackson traveled to Europe on a cattle boat, remaining in Paris to study at the Academie Julian until 1912. He decided to become a professional painter after studying Impressionism in Paris.

He returned to Canada and settled in Montreal. He often took sketching and pain...