![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
For John Bennett, it’s not just about Canadian art history \u2014 it’s also family history.<\/p>\n
Bennett, who lives in Montreal, is on a mission to find and document all the paintings and sketches made by the Canadian painter A.Y. Jackson during trips Jackson made to the N.W.T. more than 70 years ago. Bennett\u2019s father helped organize those trips for the famed painter.<\/p>\n
That recently brought Bennett to Yellowknife, where there are several of Jackson’s pieces. <\/p>\n
“There are critics don’t know anything about these periods,\u201d said Bennett. \u201cHe [Jackson] did delightful, delightful work on these trips and people should get to see them.”<\/p>\n
Jackson was a member of The Group of Seven, a collective of Canadian painters that formed in Toronto in the 1920s and became famous for their depictions of Canadian scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jackson made multiple trips to the North starting in the 1920s, painting the northern landscape and the mining industry. That\u2019s where Bennett\u2019s father, W.J. Bennett, came into the picture. As the head of Crown corporations such as Eldorado Mining and Refining and the Northern Transportation Company Limited \u2014 which provided transportation up the Mackenzie River for much of the last century \u2014 W.J. helped arrange the painter’s trips to the N.W.T. in the 1940s and ’50s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat started the whole process and my father obviously became good friends with him,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a less well-known part of Jackson\u2019s legacy, but it\u2019s one that is deeply personal to John.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787412251_525_default.jpg\")
‘Great Bear Lake’ by A.Y. Jackson, held at the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre in Yellowknife. (Jocelyn Shepel\/CBC)<\/p>\n
He said Jackson extended his gratitude to his father by giving him paintings, though W.J. insisted on buying them for an agreed-upon price of around $50 \u2014 considerably less than the five or six-figure asking price many of those works would see today.<\/p>\n
After W.J. died, John acquired the Jackson paintings from his family estate. Since then, he\u2019s made it his mission to track down all the other paintings his dad was connected to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from locating the pieces online, John has been to see some in person as well, in Montreal and Ottawa, and also in Alberta. Seeing Jackson\u2019s work held in Yellowknife marked a first for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been in the back of my mind for a long time. I’m up here probably 10 years too late, but I turned 81 and I figured, well, we got to get it done,\u201d said John.<\/p>\n
A ‘particularly inspired group of paintings’<\/p>\n
John\u2019s goal is to collect all his research in a book he\u2019s working on alongside Craig Klinkhoff, a Montreal-based art advisor and dealer specializing in Canadian fine art, including works by the Group of Seven.<\/p>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787412251_685_default.jpg\")
The Prince of Wales Heritage Centre has several of Jackson’s paintings and sketches, and other Jackson works are on display at the N.W.T. Legislative Assembly building (Jocelyn Shepel\/CBC)<\/p>\n