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Canadian CGP, G7, OC, OSA, RCA [1882-1974]
JACK WADE MINING CAMP, ALASKA
oil on wood panel
10.5 x 13.5 in. (26 x 34.3 cm)
signed lower right; signed, titled and dated verso; inscribed verso "Gold mining, long abandoned" / "To Martin and Ester Harland, From Alex Jackson" / "Studio Building, Severn Street, Toronto" and certified by the Naomi Jackson Groves Inventory #1470
In the fall of 1964, A.Y. Jackson, accompanied by colleagues Ralph Burton and Maurice Haycock, embarked on a sketching trip to capture the Northwest corners of the continent, starting in the Yukon and then crossing the border into Alaska. At 82, this was to be Jackson's final trip along the Alaska Highway, twenty-one years after he had famously painted its construction with H.G. Glyde. From early September until the end of October of that year, the group began their expedition in Whitehorse, and then spent ten days travelling up the highway and across the border into Alaska by station wagon before returning to the Yukon. (1)
Jack Wade, located in the South East corner of Alaska, was established as a gold mining camp around 1900. Today, Jack Wade Creek can still be panned for gold, but even in 1964 when Jackson visited, the camp had long been abandoned, which Jackson noted to verso of his panel. The old structures, and the rugged, untamed landscape called to the artist, who reveled in capturing the light and texture of the land.
"We had heard stories of this part of the country, that it was just a stretch of monotonous bush," Jackson wrote of his first impressions of the Northwest landscape, "Perhaps it was the crisp October weather, the low sun, the somber richness of the color, the frost, and patches of snow...whatever the reason, we found it fascinating." (2)
A lovely example of the artist’s later work in the North, "Jack Wade Mining Camp” employs Jackson’s characteristic rhythmic painting style, capturing the old log buildings of the camp against the warm tones of the autumn forest.
1. Dennis Reid, Alberta Rhythm: The Later Work of A.Y. Jackson, p. 33
2. A.Y. Jackson, A Painter’s Country, p. 173
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