Crescendo

Alfred Joseph Casson
Crescendo,1953
oil on masonite
76.2 x 91.4 cm
Sarnia Industries Art Fund Purchase, 1956

AJ Casson was born in Toronto in 1898 and studied at the Hamilton Technical School. In 1919 he began an apprenticeship with Franklin Carmichael at Simpson and Matthews, a well-known printing company in Toronto. It was through Carmichael that Casson met his mentors, the Group of Seven, at Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club.

In his early career his painting was heavily defined by the Group of Seven, but he later sought to escape their influence, choosing to include more abstract approach to his landscape works.

An accomplished calligrapher, he excelled in streamlined design, loved pattern, and developed an exceptional visual memory. Casson co-founded the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1926. He promoted Canadian art through his commercial work and arts organizations, instigating the WWII war artists program.