JEH MacDonald had so many influences in his life, and many of them inspired his passion for art, as well as his opinions of life.  So, since there were so many influences within this artist’s life, I divided them into categories:

People and Places that influenced JEH MacDonald

• Lawren Harris: This Group of Seven member, and best friends of MacDonald had a great impact on the artist’s life, in terms of encouraging his love and style of art, advising him t become a fulltime artist, as well as helping him with various art ideas as well as styles.  Harris always supported MacDonald, and helped him in the hard, troublesome years of his life.  Both Harris and MacDonald were equally influenced by the exhibition at the Albright Gallery in Buffalo, New York, in 1913, having a great impact on each other’s artwork as well.
• Tom Thomson: Another Group member, who was also MacDonald’s best friend.  He influenced MacDonald in terms of his love of nature, of Algonquin Park, his style, as well as his worldly inspiration.  Thomson’s death also impacted JEH MacDonald’s perspective of life and the world.  Overall, both artists again had a tremendous impact on each other’s work, as well as their lives and opinions, much like MacDonald and Harris.
•   Georgian Bay, Algonquin Park, and Canoe Lake: These locations, as well as others up in the north of Canada inspired most of MacDonald’s  earlier paintings, as well as different members of the Group of Seven’s paintings
• Algoma: This is another, more separate location in Canada that inspired  MacDonald the most, that it was nicknamed “MacDonald’s Country”.  After MacDonald’s recovery of his physical collapse, Algoma was special to him, and had a special place in his heart.  Most of MacDonald’s paintings later on in his life consisted, and were inspired by the landscape of Algoma, said to be his greatest inspiration of all.
• Scandinavian Art:  This art influenced MacDonald within his style of painting, where he first had sight of the new style at an exhibition at the Buffalo Albright Gallery in 1913.
• Poetry:  This literary art influenced MacDonald in visual arts, because, at some point in his life, MacDonald rested form his art, and started pursuing poetry—only for a short while.
• Thornhill:  This was McDonald’s new home in the year of 1911, and it inspired a partial amount of his paintings, as well as his lifestyle.
• Many excursions throughout Quebec and Ontario also influenced his outlook on the Canadian landscape, as well.

Art Styles That Influenced MacDonald’s Art

• From the 1800s to the late 1900s, there was an art form called neoclassicism.  This art form thrived elegantly, and was a representation of classic art within modern times. 
• Symbolism existed within the 1880s and 1890s.  It was decorative imaging, the creative use of arbitrary symbol to represent something, as it was similar to abstract art.  
• A style that was rare, but occurred within the years 1905-1908, was fauvism,  this type of art  used bold colours, and was out of the ordinary. 
• During the same time period, although it lasted longer, was expressionism.  This for of art existed form 1905-1925, being a popular movement in Europe.  It consisted of expressing the artist’s feelings, emotions, through colour, shape, and lie within the artwork. 
• Within the 19^th century, there was a style called art nouveau, a symbolic style, its name presenting that the art was new, fresh and original. 
• Folk art, also existing during the 19^th century, is what MacDonald had been painting all along, because he was painting Canadian landscape, with different Canadian elements and styles. 
• From the years 1915 to 1923, Dadaism was popular.  Dadaism was a type of modern art that created a parody of classical and Western art, much like cartoons. 
• There was surrealism in the 1920s and 1930s, inspiring the use of dream images, oriented more toward the liberation of the unconscious mind, as a sort of modern art. 
• The opposite of surrealism was realism, another existing art form within the modern world, estimated to occur around the same time as its parallel.  Realism was a representation of the reality of life, as well as concentrating on the facts of life, being another popular movement in France.  
• Art deco was popular as well between the years 1920-1930.  This style was simple, and consisted of straight lines, combined with a slender form. 
• Naïve art, a style that occurred in Canada and North America, was simple, unprofessional art, which might have had an impact on MacDonald about the concept of simplicity.
• Romanticism, occurring during the mid-nineteenth century, was definitely something that would influence MacDonald. 
• Finally, Nabis was a form of art that occurred within the 1980s.  This form was based on a specific subject, portrayed uniquely, being an art movement within the 20^th century as well.