Thomas Reid MacDonald (1908 to 1978)
About the Artist
Thomas Reid MacDonald was born in Montreal in 1908. As a young man he studied figurative painting and after his enlistment, served with the Canadian Army’s 7th Reconnaissance Regiment where he was eventually put to work as a service artist. Commissioned in May 1944, MacDonald worked as an official war artist from August 1944 until the end of the war. MacDonald was a consistent and prolific artist and the Canadian War Museum houses 80 of his artworks. In 1947 MacDonald moved to Hamilton to become the first full-time director/curator of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He stayed in this position for 25 years developing a collection that grew to become one of the highest regarded collectuons in the country. Despite the demands of running a public gallery and building it's collection, MacDonald continued to devote a large measure of his private time to painting.
Stuart MacCuaig
Climbing the Cold White Peaks: A survey of artists in and from Hamilton 1910 -1950
About the Painting
Oil on canvas
The Hopper Book displays "the informality of pose, pensiveness of mood, formality of composition and solidness of structure evident in MacDonald's work throughout his life". Like other works done in the seventies, it exemplifies and consolidates the concerns of a lifetime of dedicated effort. "The colours of the blouse tend to dissolve and pulsate as do those in component areas throughout the entire painting. Contours merge rather effortlessly as the whole is unified by tonal harmony."
Art Gallery of Hamilton
T.R. MacDonald 1908-1978
