Art Brokerage: B. 1898 - Alfred Joseph Casson was born in Toronto on May 17, 1898, and for more than eight decades his life was centred in Southern Ontario. He was a young commercial artist, assistant to Frank Carmichael, when the Group of Seven (of which Carmichael was a member) was finally formed. This connection helped to lead A.J. Casson to fame. In 1926 the Group of Seven consisted of only six, because of the withdrawal of Frank Johnston, and the group turned to Casson in order to re-authenticate its name. Casson differred from the rest of the group, not only through his late enrollment, but also in the fact that he continued to work as a commercial artist until the age of sixty, when he retired as Vice President and Art Director of Samson-Mathews in Toronto. Casson's subjects also differ somewhat from those of the rest of the group, for he has never shown much interest in the North Woods landscape of which the others were so fond. His favorite subjects have consistently been rural scenes of Southern Ontario.