Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1933 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
1 portfolio ; 41 x 28 x 5 cm
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Thoreau MacDonald (1901–1989) was a Canadian artist, book illustrator and art editor. Son of Harriet Joan Lavis and Group of Seven painter J.E.H. MacDonald, he was born outside Toronto and named for American transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). Largely self-taught, Thoreau MacDonald worked with his father to develop his artistic ability. His prints and drawings are chiefly in black and white owing to colour blindness. He never married. Thoreau MacDonald’s working career was spent for the most part at the Ryerson Press and Canadian Forum magazine, for which he produced hundreds of drawings and linocuts. In 1933 he became a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters. He was especially regarded for his prints and drawings of subjects from nature. In the late 1930s he founded the Woodchuck Press in Thornhill, Ont. to produce bookplates and labels along with illustrated publications. Thoreau MacDonald died in Toronto in 1989. His work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Hart House at the University
of Toronto, the McMichael Collection and the National Gallery of Canada.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Series comprises a portfolio of ink drawings made in Toronto in 1933 for Thoreau MacDonald’s planned illustrated edition of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (originally published: Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854), and a volume (booklet) of pencil sketches of the layouts of the book. A note pasted inside the front cover of the portfolio, written by MacDonald, indicates the scope of the project, which was to have
included some 60 designs for the book.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open. Access to Special Collections is by appointment only. Please contact the reference desk for more information.
Conditions governing reproduction
Material in this collection is in the public domain. Permission of the Art Gallery of Ontario is required for publication.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Credit line: Art Gallery of Ontario | Gift of E.R. Hunter, 2007
Also known as the Walden Portfolio. — Title of the series is based on the cover title of the portfolio:
“Some designs for H.D. Thoreau’s Walden made by Thoreau MacDonald, 25 Severn St., Toronto.”
Alternative identifier(s)
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Description control area
Description identifier
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Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Originally prepared in 2013
Language(s)
- English