J.E.H. MacDonald was born in Durham England in 1873 of Canadian parents. He spent his early years in England, and moved to Hamilton Ontario with his family at the age of fourteen. He took evening art classes at the Hamilton Art School as a teenager, before relocating to Toronto. In Toronto he studied at the Central Ontario School of Art. From 1894, he worked as a graphic designer at Grip Ltd. In 1903, he sailed for England and joined Carlton Studios a London graphic firm. On his return to Canada in 1907, he rejoined Grip and began to paint the landscape near Toronto. Around this time Tom Thomson joined the Grip staff. F.H. Johnston joined a short time later. These artists found they had much in common and began going on sketching trips as a group. In 1910, he and his family spent the summer on Georgian Bay. Later that year he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Canadian Academy. This exhibition and others that followed were well received and MacDonald was encouraged to take up painting on a full-time basis in 1911. By 1912, all the original members of the Group of Seven had met and were regularly sketching together. MacDonald was devastated by the accidental drowning of Tom Thomson in 1917. He designed a brass plaque to Thomson's memory which was mounted to a cairn erected at Canoe Lake. The first official Group of Seven exhibition took place in May of 1920. It inspired a storm of criticism. MacDonald accepted a teaching position at the Ontario College of Art in 1921, and was appointed as principal in 1929. He continued to go on painting trips, but his teaching responsibilities sapped his energies and he did few large canvases during this time. He completed several decorative murals and became known for his poetry. He died in Toronto in 1932.