Alfred J. Casson RCA, OSA

Casson was born in Toronto, Ontario (17 May 1898) but grew up in Guelph and went to school in Hamilton. When he returned to Toronto with his family in 1916, in Toronto he attended art classes and worked as a freelance commercial designer. At the age of 21 (in 1919), Casson was hired as a designer by the commercial art firm Rous and Mann and worked under the guidance of Franklin Carmichael.  Thus began a close friendship.

Eager to become a landscape painter, he went to evening classes at the Central Technical School and made sketching trips around Toronto. During the first years at Rous and Mann, Casson learned the fundamentals of typography and graphics under the tutelage of Carmichael.  More than any other member of the Group of Seven Casson explored the techniques of printmaking such as serigraphs (fine art silk screens).

The young artist soon started taking weekend sketching trips with Carmichael and was introduced to the other members of the Group of Seven. Casson was a fine watercolourist who, together with Franklin Carmichael, and F.H. Brigden founded the Ontario Society of Painters in Water Colour in 1925. The following year, Casson accepted an invitation from Carmichael to join the Group of Seven and often accompanied the artists on their sketching trips.

It is often thought that the major contribution of Casson and Carmichael to the Group was in reviving the neglected art of watercolour painting. Both of them enjoyed working in this medium, which was perfectly suited to their approach and to their work in the commercial field.  In order to improve the quality of watercolour painting and to give it new respectability, they organized the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. The society's first exhibition was held in 1926.

Although he often painted in Killarney Park, Casson focused mainly on southern and central Ontario settings, particularly the small communities of Bancroft, Parry Sound, Glen Williams, Norval, Salem, and Kleinburg – where the McMichael gallery is located – and he is best known for his watercolour paintings of these areas.  During World War II, Casson employed his interest in serigraphs to help establish a program for the Canadian Military to boost troop morale by placing images of Canada (landscapes, wildlife, and florals) by well-known artists (Comfort, Jackson, Harris) in barracks and military buildings and offices both overseas and across Canada.

Casson continued to work as a commercial artist until the age of sixty, when he retired as Vice President and Art Director of Samson-Mathews in Toronto.  Throughout his career, Casson was an enthusiastic spokesperson for the Group's achievements. Casson died in 1992 at the age of 94 and is buried alongside other members of the Group of Seven in the cemetery located on the McMichael grounds.