Mr. Jackson's Mushrooms
A.Y. Jackson's Brother Henry was a Great Artist in his Own Right.
Feb 9, 2009
If you came up in the Canadian public school system you’ve likely heard of landscape artist and Group of Seven member A.Y. (Alexander Young) Jackson. Unless you’re also a mycophile or a rare book collector, you probably haven’t heard of A.Y.’s elder brother, Henry. Here’s an introduction:
Henry Alexander Carmichael (H.A.C.) Jackson was born in Montreal in 1877, the eldest of six children. H.A.C. left school at fourteen to help provide for his family, finding work as a commercial artist. His career in this field was long but inauspicious; if it wasn’t for his passion and talent as an amateur mycologist and botanical artist, H.A.C.’s name would be lost in the annals of time.
Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms
In 1977 – sixteen years after H.A.C.’s death – the Jackson family donated a collection of his mushroom watercolours to the National Gallery of Canada, which promptly ran a special exhibition of his works. In 1979, in conjunction with the National Museums of Canada, the National Gallery showcased the life and work of H.A.C. in the book Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms.
Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms is divided into three parts. The first, an introduction by editor Mimi Cazort, includes an analysis of H.A.C.’s painting technique and a brief biography of the artist. This biography describes a passionate, intelligent man, an avid outdoorsman and early environmentalist who once traded 250 mushroom specimens for back copies of the New York Botanical Gardens’ expensive year book Mycologia.
From 1927-1954 H.A.C. kept detailed notes of his forays into the woods surrounding Montreal. The second part of Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms contains excerpts from his later notebooks (1931-1954). These were selected because they illustrate Jackson’s environmental and artistic concerns, but are notable for expressing the author’s amiability. Jackson had a genuine fondness for his friends, for a post-outing pint of ale and for his constant canine companion Honeyboy, whom he alternately referred to as “the old reprobate,” “the old fellow” and “my stout old comrade.”
The third and best part of Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms consists of 42 plates of H.A.C.’s mushroom watercolours. These are arranged chronologically, showing the development of his craft from 1935-1952. All are good, but those painted from about 1940 on are luminous, surreal and gorgeous, showing the demarcation of Jackson the illustrator from Jackson the artist.
Other Works
Canada’s Cybermuse Gallery has an online collection of mushroom paintings by Jackson but it’s more difficult to find his work in print. It only appears in rare and out-of-print publications.
The June 1978 edition of Beaver: Canada’s History Magazine contains an article entitled “Henry A.C. Jackson: Amateur Canadian Naturalist.” Another rare publication containing 191 illustrations by Jackson is A Glossary of Mycology by Walter Snell and Esther A. Dick (Harvard University Press). This widely acclaimed glossary was published in 1957 and last reprinted in 1971.
Rene Pomerleau’s Mushrooms of Eastern Canada and the United States: How to Recognize and Prepare the Edible Varieties may be even rarer, with just one English edition published in 1951. Bilingual bibliophiles might have better luck: Champignons de l'est du Canada et des Etats-Unis: Comment Reconnaitre et Utiliser les Especes Comestibles was published in 1951 and republished in 1977.
Mr. Jackson’s Mistake
On August 19, 1933 H.A.C. wrote the following in his notebook: “The great event of the day was the finding again of the gorgeous and beautiful Amanita caesarea. After three years of searching it was quite thrilling to see it once more.”Jackson’s 1951 painting of this mushroom, labeled Amanita caesarea, provides the cover illustration for Mr. Jackson’s Mushrooms.
H.A.C. was mistaken in his identification. What he saw was a close relative to the European Amanita caesaria. This mushroom, commonly known as the American Caesar’s mushroom, is Amanita jacksonii “named in honor of Canadian amateur mycologist and botanical illustrator Henry Alexander Carmichael Jackson”(Roody, W.C. Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians).
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