Thoreau MacDonald, 1901 – 1989
Canadian artist Thoreau MacDonald was the only son of Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald and was born near Toronto, where he was to spend most of his life.
‘The Plough’ recalls that at fifteen years years of age, Thoreau worked as a farm hand before taking up art studies, where the countryside around his home would have informed his art.
He was a modest thoughtful man, in touch with nature. This sensibility made subjects like the plough perfectly suited to the Sampson-Matthews project, to which he would be such an important contributor, and through which the narrative of the Canadian story had national appeal.