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A.J.
Casson was born in Toronto and spent his childhood in
Guelph and Hamilton. Casson's family eventually moved
back to Toronto where he attended art classes and worked
as a freelance commercial designer. At the age of 21,
Casson was hired as a designer by the commercial art
firm Rous and Mann and worked under the guidance of
Franklin Carmichael.
The young
artist soon started taking weekend sketching trips with
Carmichael and was introduced to the other members of
the Group of Seven. Casson was a fine watercolourist
who, together with Franklin Carmichael, and F.H. Brigden
founded the Ontario Society of Painters in Water Colour
in 1925. The following year, Casson accepted an
invitation from Carmichael to join the Group of Seven
and often accompanied the artists on their sketching
trips.
Casson
left the depiction of the more dramatic northern
landscapes to the other members of the Group because he
felt that he would have "seen everything through
[…] their eyes". He describes how, when painting
with Carmichael, he realized that he was beginning to
paint like him, "you see he was nearly ten years
older than me and I had to make a break of my own.
That's part of why I started the villages."
Although he often painted in Killarney Park, Casson
focused mainly on southern and central Ontario settings,
particularly the small communities such as Bancroft,
Parry Sound, Glen Williams, Norval, Salem, and Kleinburg
– where the McMichael gallery is located – and he is
best known for his watercolour paintings of these areas.
Throughout his career,
Casson was an enthusiastic spokesperson for the Group's
achievements. Casson died in 1992 at the age of 94 and
is buried along side other members of the Group of Seven
in the cemetery located on the McMichael's grounds.
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