(Credit: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Victory Loan drive poster. A. J. Casson won first prize with this poster in the 1941 Victory Bond contest conducted to find suitable illustrations for the 1st Victory Loan campaign in Canada during the Second World War. Source URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GiveUsTheTools.jpg – Artist: Alfred Joseph Casson; Copyright expired. Crown Copyright. Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1983-30-585.)

On February 20 and beyond, take a moment to remember a Torontonian commercial artist and painter named Alfred Joseph “A. J.” Casson (Born: May 17, 1898 in Toronto, Ontario; Died: February 20, 1992 in Toronto, Ontario) who joined the Group of Seven in 1926 as a replacement for Francis (“Frank” or “Franz”) Johnston. Casson spent time as a youth in Guelph and Hamilton where he commenced a lifelong commitment to commercial art; in 1919, he worked at Rouse & Mann Ltd. as an assistant designer to Franklin Carmichael. Beginning as a printmaker and painter in water colours, Casson began to exhibit oil paintings in 1922, primarily landscapes from Muskoka and Haliburton. (For example, view the National Gallery of Canada website to view Summer Landscape (1925), painted at Paugh Lake in southern Algonquin Park.) Exploring rural Ontario with his automobile enabled A.J. Casson to paint small towns which became a favourite theme, employing a tendency toward simplification and focusing upon the essential elements as recommended by Lawren Harris. Casson joined the printing firm Sampson Matthews (that specialized in screen printing) in 1926 and served as chief designer for many years before retiring in 1957 to paint full-time.

After the Group of Seven disbanded in 1932, Casson co-founded the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933 that included several members of the Group of Seven amongst its collective of 28 painters. Casson gave back to the arts community by supporting other artists and charitable bodies and by serving as president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1948-1952), president of the Ontario Society of Artists (1941-1944), and as a board member of Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario) (1955-1959). After he died in 1992 at the age of 94, Casson was buried upon the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario along with other Group of Seven members.

Consider the following titles for borrowing from Toronto Public Library collections:

A.J. Casson: an artist's life / Christopher E. Jackson, 1998. 

This book was published by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection to accompany the exhibition entitled “A.J. Casson: an artist's life”, organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection from November 1998 to November 1999.

Sunday morning with Cass: conversations with A.J. Casson / Ted Herriott and Alfred Joseph Casson, 1993.

Read the interviews conducted by Ted Herriott with Canadian painter A.J. Casson.

The Bard of rural Ontario A.J. Casson [1 videocassette] / Harvey Kirck; Sketches of our town (Television Program). 

Join journalist Harvey Kirck interviewing A.J. Casson who discusses his experiences visiting and painting rural Ontario for more than 50 years.

My favourite watercolours, 1919 to 1957 / A.J. Casson; foreword by Paul Duval, 1982.

Find out which of his own watercolours from the 1919-1957 time period that A.J. Casson liked best.

Click here for additional copies.

A. J. Casson, his life & works: a tribute / Paul Duval, 1980. 

Consider this biography of A.J. Casson and a review of his art work by Paul Duval.