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You are here: Main : Publications : CCI Newsletters : CCI Newsletter No. 34 : CCI Acquires A.Y. Jackson and Barker Fairley Paint Boxes

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CCI Newsletter, No. 34, December 2004

CCI Acquires A.Y. Jackson and Barker Fairley Paint Boxes

by Ian N.M. Wainwright, former Manager of the Analytical Research Laboratory, CCI

On April 7, 2004, the Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) acquired two special paint boxes — one that had belonged to A.Y. Jackson of the Group of Seven and one that had belonged to Jackson’s friend, critic and artist Barker Fairley.¹ These paint boxes were part of the Estate of Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves (a niece of A.Y. Jackson who passed away in 2001), and became available for purchase through Walker’s Fine Art & Estate Auctioneers in Ottawa. It was Carol MacIvor, a former Senior Communications Advisor at CCI, who noticed the announcement in the Ottawa Citizen that the paint boxes were to be auctioned. She was adamant that they be acquired by a public institution — both for research purposes and to ensure that they would be accessible to the Canadian public — and she quickly alerted CCI. Once at the auction, MacIvor learned that the A.Y. Jackson paint box was part of a lot that also included a record player, a briefcase, a tray, a duffel bag containing a sleeping bag, and a folding cot (the briefcase, tray, and duffel bag bear the monogram “A.Y.J”). Shortly before midnight, she was successful in her bid to acquire the paint boxes for CCI. She brought the various items to CCI the following day and they were soon documented and placed in a secure vault.

The fact that the paint boxes came directly from the Estate of Dr. Groves provided a unique opportunity to document for posterity their provenance, ownership, and time of use based on personal accounts (this is not always the case — even for painting materials from well-known Canadian artists). We are indebted to Anna Brennan, Literary Trustee for Dr. Grove’s Estate, for giving us a detailed recollection of the history of the paint boxes and the probable time at which they were used. Jackson moved from Toronto to Manotick, a community south of Ottawa, in 1955 to be closer to his family. By 1962 this arrangement was no longer convenient, and he rented out the Manotick studio and found an apartment on Maclaren Street in Ottawa. He remained in Ottawa until 1968, at which time he suffered a stroke and, at the invitation of his friends Robert and Signe McMichael, moved to Kleinburg, Ontario. The paint box was moved from the Maclaren Street apartment to Dr. Grove’s home at that time, and Brennan believes it dates from Jackson’s Ottawa period. However, an earlier date for his use of these painting materials cannot be ruled out as yet. Research into the date of manufacture of the paint tubes should shed additional light on their chronology.

Barker Fairley paint boxes.

The two paint boxes are valuable additions to CCI’s collection of historical reference materials especially because of their direct connection to A.Y. Jackson. Both the Jackson and Fairley paint boxes contain a good representation of paint colours in tubes and on palettes. The Jackson box also contains a selection of paint tubes from Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton. Analysis of the paints will add considerably to our database of analytical and historical information on 20th-century Canadian artists. This information continues to prove useful for curatorial and art historical research, conservation of paintings, and studies of individual works related to authenticity and art fraud.

Jackson went on a number of canoe trips with Dr. Barker Fairley of the University of Toronto, who was an early friend of the Group of Seven. One particularly memorable trip is recorded in his autobiography. (Jackson, A.Y. A Painter’s Country. Toronto, ON: Clarke, Irwin & Co. Ltd., 1963, pp. 74–75.)