The English born painter James Edward Harvey MacDonald born May 12, 1873, and died Nov. 26, 1932 who migrated to Canada in 1887, was the chief spokesman for the Group of Seven, landscape painters who brought the influence of modern European art to their depictions of northern Canada.

Using the dramatic colours and simplifted forms of the symbolists, MacDonald captured the splendours of Algonquin Park, as well as the Georgian Bay and Algoma regions.

MacDonald, who was also a poet, was a disciple of Walt Whitman and hnery David Thoreau, whose works influenced both his writing and his painitng. His works hang in every major museum acroos Canada including the National Gallery of Canada.