John Baptist Jackson Part 5

He proposed, instead, to use as subjects many of the famous statues of antiquity; the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Berghem, Wouwerman, the views of Ca.n.a.letto, Pannini--

Copies of the Pictures of all the best Painters of the _Italian_, _French_ and _Flemish_ Schools, the fine sculptur'd Vases of the Ancients which are now remaining; in short, every Bird that flies, every Figure that moves upon the Surface of the Earth from the Insect to the human; and every Vegetable that springs from the Ground, whatever is of Art or Nature, may be introduced into this Design of fitting up and furnis.h.i.+ng Rooms, with all the Truth of Drawing, Light, and Shadow, and great Perfection of Colouring.

This vast gallery of art and nature was to be printed in "Colours softening into each other, with Harmony and Repose...."

Even if we feel that Jackson was building up his project to attract attention, or that he was intoxicated by the idea of creating art on such a grand scale, there is still something wrong in his conceiving it in terms of wallpaper. What is certain is that Jackson was desperately anxious to create color prints. In the absence of art patrons, wallpaper was his only excuse for continuing as an artist. As a business venture it was absurd, even tragic. There is good reason to believe that Jackson lacked capital and rented the quarters for his business: his name does not appear in the Poor Rate Book of that period in the Borough of Battersea.

From a certain standpoint, this excursion by Jackson into wallpapers featuring Roman ruins and cla.s.sical antiquity appeared to come at an appropriate time. Marco Ricci's paintings as well as the somewhat later work of Pannini and Zuccarelli, and Guardi's early ruin pieces, were already known. Ricci had visited England from 1710 to 1716. Zuccarelli had come twice, once in 1742 and again in 1751 to stay until 1773, becoming a foundation member of the Royal Academy; his cla.s.sical landscapes with their glib charm had a comparatively good reception. But the strongest influence was undoubtedly that of Piranesi, whose powerful etchings brought to life as never before the ravaged stones of Imperial Rome and the _Campagna_. Their effect was widespread and electrifying, although it was not until the 1760's that they developed their full force as an influence on English architecture and furniture design, and came to supersede the Palladian style brought to England by Inigo Jones at the beginning of the 17th century.

Jackson was too early; public taste was not yet ready for picturesque landscape or antique forms in wallpaper. But the style became dominant in the latter 18th century, particularly in England and France, and was also exported to America. While it is difficult to estimate the degree of Jackson's influence in this development, we know that no scenic papers can be dated before the Ricci prints, or before Jackson's wallpaper venture. Oman[39] comments:

The use of wall-paper to imitate large architectural designs dates, as we have seen, from the days of J. B. Jackson. During the remainder of the century this style was used almost exclusively for decoration of the halls and staircases of great houses.

[Footnote 39: Oman, 1929, p. 33.]

These papers covered rooms with landscape panoramas or with landscapes in Rococo scroll frames, relieved by decorative panels with busts, statuettes, and floral ornaments. As in preceding work, they were usually painted in opaque water colors. Most of the landscapes were loose transcriptions of designs by Pannini, Vernet, Lancret and other painters of architectural, scenic, and pastoral subjects. The treatment was generalized and superficial, the touch light and detached.

In this approach to wallpaper we see the basic ideas of Jackson, but with more emphasis on charm and elegance. Ironically, as years pa.s.sed and original sources grew obscure, it became the tendency to attribute scenic papers in great houses to Jackson.[40] If he was a failure as a pioneer in the field, he remained its most highly prized legend.

[Footnote 40: An excellent description of the papers of this type imported to America is given by Edna Donnell in _Metropolitan Museum Studies 1932_, vol. 4, pp. 77-108.]

The _Essay_ continued with a criticism of the current taste in wallpaper. Jackson enlarged on the lack of discrimination of persons who would prefer popular papers to his.

It seems, also, as if there was great Reason to suspect wherever one sees such preposterous Furniture, that the Taste in Literature of that Person who directed it was very deficient, and that it would prefer _Tom D'Urfy_ to _Shakespear_, _Sir Richard Blackmore_ to _Milton_, _Tate_ to _Homer_, an _Anagrammatist_ to _Virgil_, _Horace_, or any other Writer of true Wit, either Ancient or Modern.

He added that his prints, made in oil colors, would be permanent "whereas in that done with Water-Colours, in the common Way, Six Months makes a very visible Alteration in all that preposterous Glare, which makes its whole Merit...."

The _Essay_ has eight plates, four of ancient statues in chiaroscuro and four of plants, animals, and buildings, in probably six colors. They were hastily done and no doubt had a rather fresh charm when published, but unfortunately the oil in the pigments was inferior, and every print in the book has darkened and yellowed badly. The prints and neighboring pages are heavily spotted and stained. This book which should have been his vindication became instead an argument for his lack of merit, especially to those who were not familiar with his other work.

We do not know how large a working force Jackson had or how many of the projected plates he planned to a.s.sign to helpers or to carry out himself. Some of the decorative borders from four blocks, blue, red, yellow, and gray-green, he undoubtedly made and printed himself. They are heavy and rather fruity in effect but are incisively drawn and cut.

Also bearing Jackson's stamp are some ornamental frames with fruit and flowers in the same full range of colors.

An alb.u.m ascribed to him, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, contains drawings of flowers, foliage, details of ornament and hand-colored designs, and a proof of the woodcut for the t.i.tle page to the _Suetonius_ of 1738. Five of the drawings are signed or initialed by Jackson, with dates from 1740 to 1753. The designs, which might have been intended for calico or wallpaper, are poorly done and not at all in his style. The drawings are competent but cannot definitely be considered his, notwithstanding the signatures, since we do not know Jackson's handwriting from other sources. The most that can be said for this alb.u.m is that it probably comes from his workshop.

While producing wallpaper, Jackson still made efforts to attract sponsors for full editions of his earlier chiaroscuros. The _Woman Meditating_ was dedicated to the Antiquarian Society of London. _Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter_, rejected by Crozat, we a.s.sume, was dedicated to Thomas Hollis, whom Jackson may have met in Venice. And the _Venus and Cupid with a Bow_ was inscribed to Thomas Brand, lifelong companion of Hollis who later added to his name the latter's patronymic.

The _Algernon Sidney_ has no dedication, but since Hollis was a Sidney specialist and edited the first one-volume edition of his works in 1769, there is a strong likelihood that the print had some connection with this liberal gentleman. Jackson made it either in Venice just before he left, or in England shortly after his arrival.

Robert Dunbar, Jr., who had inherited the wallpaper manufactory on his father's death, went out of business late in 1754. In his possession was a quant.i.ty of Jackson's papers, for which he was the main outlet. With this backlog of papers on hand, and no large distributor, Jackson's venture collapsed. This happened shortly after the publication of the _Essay_, and its author was never to have the opportunity to carry out his grandiose plans.

Jackson appealed to Hollis, who wrote to his former mentor, Dr. John Ward, professor of rhetoric at Gresham College and the head of a society founded by n.o.blemen and gentlemen for the encouragement of learning:[41]

Dear Sir!-- Do Me the Favour to accept these four prints of Jackson's. They are no where sold, & will soon be scarce. When You consider their Merit, I am confident You will lament the hard Fate of the ingenious Artist; who, at this Time, in his old age, & in his own Country is unprotected unnoticed, and can difficultly support Himself against immediate distress & Ruin.

I am, with great Respect,

Dear Sir!

Your obliged affect humble Servant

T. Hollis

Bedford Street, February 10, 1755

[Footnote 41: British Museum Add. mss. 6210.]

We do not know the results of this appeal. In any case Jackson seems to have faded out as an artist. Little is known of his subsequent career up to the time more than twenty years later, when Bewick mentions meeting him in advanced age. In 1761 he made a drawing of Salisbury Cathedral for Edward Eaton, "bookseller at Sarum," for a line engraving dedicated by Eaton to the Lord Bishop of Winchester. This large view included figures in the foreground in an attempt to give animation to the scene.

Unfortunately the engraver, John Fougeron, was little more than an amateur. His execution was feeble and mechanical: Jackson's drawing suffered so badly that its quality cannot be determined. This print was copied on a smaller scale in a steel engraving by J. B. Swaine, published by J. B. Nichols & Son in 1843, but it was hardly an improvement.

Bewick's recollections of Jackson, written about forty years after their meeting in Newcastle, imply that Jackson stayed in that city for a period. The Town Clerk's Office, however, has no record of his residence. The following pa.s.sage from Bewick's _Memoir_ is the last evidence[42] bearing on Jackson:

Several impressions from duplicate or triplicate blocks, printed in this way, of a very large size, were also given to me, as well as a drawing of the press from which they were printed, many years ago, by Jean Baptiste Jackson, who had been patronised by the King of France; but, whether these prints had been done with the design of embellis.h.i.+ng the walls of houses in that country, I know not. They had been taken from paintings of eminent old masters, and were mostly Scripture pieces. They were well drawn, and perhaps correctly copied from the originals, yet in my opinion none of them looked well. Jackson left Newcastle quite enfeebled with age, and, it was said, ended his days in an asylum, under the protecting care of Sir Gilbert Elliot, Bart., at some place on the border near the Teviot, or on Tweedside.

[Footnote 42: Bewick, 1925, pp. 213-214.]

If Bewick was correct in reporting that Jackson died while under the protection of Sir Gilbert Elliot, probably in a Poor Law inst.i.tution, it is unlikely that the date could have been much later than 1777, the year in which Sir Gilbert died. This would place the meeting of both artists shortly before this time, when Bewick was in his early twenties (he was born in 1753). Sir Gilbert lived in Minto House, Roxburghs.h.i.+re, Scotland, but no evidence can be found for the supposition that Jackson died in the vicinity. No obituary has been discovered. The record of Jackson's death, if it exists, probably lies in a parish register somewhere on the Scottish border.

_Critical Opinion_

In most histories of prints it was considered sufficient to note that certain artists worked in woodcut chiaroscuro; the quality of such work was rarely discussed. But Jackson was an exception: something about his prints aroused critics to defense or attack. The cleavage is absolute, strange for one who was presumably a mere reproductive artist. Nothing could show more clearly the unsettled nature of Jackson's standing than a sampling of these opinions.

Horace Walpole in a letter, dated June 12, 1753, to Sir Horace Mann describing the furnis.h.i.+ngs in Strawberry Hill, commented:[43]

The bow window below leads into a little parlour hung with a stone-colour Gothic paper and Jackson's Venetian prints, which I could never endure while they pretended, infamous as they are, to be after t.i.tian, &c., but when I gave them this air of barbarous bas-reliefs, they succeeded to a miracle; it is impossible at first sight not to conclude that they contain the history of Attila or Tottila done about the very era.

[Footnote 43: _The Letters of Horace Walpole_, ed. Toynbee, 1903, vol. 3, p. 166.]

Von Heinecken[44] says they are "in the manner of Hugo da Carpi but much inferior in execution." But Huber, Rost, and Martini[45] noted Jackson's independent approach:

Jackson's prints, which are certainly not without merit, are in general less sought after by collectors than they deserve. His style is original and is concerned entirely with broad effects.

[Footnote 44: Von Heinecken, 1771, p. 94.]

[Footnote 45: Huber, Rost, and Martini, 1808, vol. 9, pp.

121-123.]

Baverel[46] also had a high opinion of Jackson's work. Describing the Venetian prints, he says that Jackson "had a skillful and daring attack, and it is regrettable that he did not produce more work." Nagler's[47]

criticism typifies the academic preconceptions of some writers on the subject of chiaroscuro:

Jackson's works are not praiseworthy throughout in drawing, and also he was not thoroughly able to apply the principles of chiaroscuro correctly.... Yet we have several valuable prints from Jackson....

[Footnote 46: Baverel, 1807, vol. 1, pp. 341-342.]

[Footnote 47: Kunstler-Lexicon, op. cit.]