Charles William Jefferys

Charles William Jefferys was an artist, illustrator, and teacher. He was born in Rochester, England and moved to Toronto by 1880. He apprenticed at the Toronto Lithography Company and then worked for various newspapers and then as book and magazine illustrator. He was a founding member of the Graphic Arts Club (later the Canadian Society of Graphic Art) and taught in the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto. As an artist he was a great proponent of working directly from nature, painting in the field and as such was a great supporter of the work of the Group of Seven. He can be seen as a precursor to the strives made by the Group in terms of his approach to the Canadian landscape.