Chapter II: Part 2

Jackson’s style was still being formed during his Paris period. Confined for the most part to initial letters, headbands, and tailpieces, his work differed from contemporary French cuts only in its technical handling, which was firmer and broader. Little of a more creative nature came his way, and the Paris stay therefore served as a useful interim during which he became adept in his craft. The necessity for keeping himself alive by cutting on wood developed his powers of invention and his facility: he became a remarkably rapid and skillful cutter. Jackson gathered strength in Paris, but it was in Venice that he really came to maturity as an artist.

_Venice: The Heroic Effort_

After leaving Paris, Jackson and Lewis journeyed to Marseilles, where Jackson became seriously ill and remained for six months, while Lewis continued to Genoa. Regaining his health, Jackson went on to Genoa and then to Leghorn, Pisa, and Lucca, arriving in Florence in January 1731. There, during a stay of several months, he discussed with the Grand Duke of Tuscany a reprinting of Vasari’s _Lives of the Painters_. Jackson was to make cuts for the headpieces, but the project was eventually dropped, and he continued to Bologna, where he remained a month chiefly in the company of the woodcutter G. M. Moretti, who showed him some original blocks cut by Ugo da Carpi for printing in chiaroscuro. He then proceeded to Venice, arriving “three Days before the Feast of the Ascension in 1731, and was highly surprized to find no one Engraver on Wood capable to do such poor Work, he has seen at Bolonia.” Jackson was amply supplied with strong recommendations from Florence, and on showing his work to leading printers was urged to settle in Venice, where a fine woodcutter capable of both designing and executing cuts was urgently needed. Here he also met Count Antonio Maria Zanetti, who was well-known as a chiaroscuro woodcutter besides being a collector and patron of the arts. Their first meeting is described in the _Enquiry_:

... very soon after his [Jackson’s] Arrival he had an Interview with
Signior _Antonio Maria Zannetti_; from the Accounts he had heard
from Mr. _Marriette_ in _France_ of this Man’s Work in _Chiaro
Oscuro_, he expected to see some wonderful Performance, but
_Parturiunt montes nascetur ridiculus mus_ is a most applicable
Proverb on this Occasion. I who have perused this grand Raccolta of
_Zannetti’s_, must acknowledge that they are a trifling Performance,
inferior to any Attempts of this Kind in our Times; and indeed it is
no Wonder, when we come to know that this Man never used a Press,
nor so much as a Hand Roll to print his Works with. Our Countryman
says he had room to suspect he neither did cut or print these Works,
which was confirmed by the poor Men who performed both. But such was
the Vanity of this Author, that he told the Public in his
Dedications that he was the Restorer of that lost Art, whereas he
only drawed them on the Blocks, which might have been done as well
by those that cut and printed them. At this first Interview the low
Cunning of this Man was discovered....[24]

[Footnote 24: Zanetti certainly cut many of his own blocks, as the
prints with the signature “A. M. Zanetti, sculp.” attest. But he
also made use of craftsmen in the traditional fashion for other
blocks and for the mechanical phase of printing.]

Jackson undoubtedly disliked Zanetti’s soft and delicate treatment, so characteristic of 18th-century work, and considered his interpretation of Parmigianino and Raphael little short of sacrilege. Since Jackson was incapable of hiding his feelings a quarrel became inevitable. The first rift came when Zanetti let Jackson have for a few weeks a drawing by Parmigianino, the _Venus and Cupid with a Bow_, to be executed in four blocks. The print was done “intirely in _Hugo’s_ [da Carpi’s] manner, with this Difference, that no _Oscuro_ block has a Contour to resemble the original Drawing it was done from, which is seldom seen in _Hugo’s_ works....” Zanetti, surprised by the fine quality of the first proof, proposed to pass it off on Mariette in Paris as an original da Carpi print. He even stained it and cut holes in it to give the impression of aged worm-eaten paper. At the same time Jackson executed another chiaroscuro, also based on a Parmigianino drawing, the _Woman Standing Holding Jar on her Head_. Zanetti, says the _Enquiry_--

... caressed the Author with the highest Expressions of Zeal for his
Service, protesting he would communicate his Capacity to his
Correspondents all over _Europe_, which would be the Means to
advance his Fortune, especially amongst the _English_ Quality and
Gentry who travelled _Italy_. The intent of all those fine Promises
was to get the two Sets of Blocks into his Hands, which he expected
as a Present for the Use of the two original Drawings, from which
these Prints were taken; but this not being complyed with, the
_Restaurati_ expressed a Resentment at this Refusal, and took all
the Opportunities to distress the Undertakings of any Sort performed
by Mr. _Jackson_, during fourteen Years Residence in _Venice_.

Zanetti was charged, in some obscure way, with obstructing Jackson’s work in cutting 136 blocks for the _Istoria del Testamento Vecchio e Nuovo_, popularly known as the _Bibbia del Nicolosi_,[25] published by G. B. Albrizzi in 1737. We are informed that Filippo Farsetti, one of Jackson’s patrons, paid him for the whole set of cuts after rebuking Zanetti for interference.

[Footnote 25: These cuts were also used for the _Biblia Sacra_,
published by Hertz in Venice in 1740.]

The Englishman evidently was kept well occupied with preparing cuts for printers, among them Baglioni and Pezzana. For the latter he made 24 woodcuts for a quarto edition of a _Biblia Sacra_ and an unspecified number of ornaments for a folio edition. Jackson was given a free hand to conceive and carry out the cuts as he pleased.

While working on these prints he began--

to consider on his favourite Work in _Chiaro Oscuro_, and by
intervals examined what he had projected at _Paris_. He began first
to make experiments with Tints, and having proved that Four
Impressions could produce Ten positive Tints, besides _Tratti_ and
_Lights_; he resolved to try a large Piece from _Rubens’s_ Judgment
of _Solomon_, with an intent to prove what could be done with the
Efforts of a Type Press before he launched into greater Expences
with another Machine.

He wanted this press in his home, where he could experiment as he pleased without tying up workmen or equipment in Pezzana’s shop. It might have been professional delicacy that prompted him to ask Pezzana’s permission to have a private press built, or it might have been a bid for patronage from the generous and influential printer. In any event, Pezzana responded by having his carpenters build and install the press at his own expense. To avoid official registrations or craft suspicions, he had it registered as his own. The trial proofs of _The Judgment of Solomon_, printed from four blocks, pleased Jackson in every regard except vigor of impression. Unfortunately no edition was published, despite the dedication to Filippo Farsetti.

Finished in 1735, this woodcut was probably the first to translate a painting in a full range of tones. From the purely technical standpoint it was an incredible achievement. Jackson created a vivid approximation of a large and complex painting and at the same time produced a vigorous woodcut. From four superimposed woodblocks, with almost no linework, he was able to capture the full-blooded forms of Rubens. By keeping his means simple Jackson asserted the importance of his cutting and printing, the expressiveness of his drawing, and the fluidity of his tones. Obviously such a procedure required major decisions as to what to omit and what to stress; in other words it required interpretive abilities of a high order.

Evidently Jackson believed that his new chiaroscuro method required heavier pressure than the platen press was capable of. (On the usual wooden screw press the size of the platen never exceeded 13 by 19 inches, because the impressions made with a larger platen would not have been strong enough; for prints larger than the platen, the bed was moved and the platen pulled down twice.) He had the press returned to Pezzana and set out to build a more suitable printing machine.

He found there were other means to be employed beside a Type Press,
and having examined the Theory of his Invention put it in Practice,
by erecting a Rolling Press of another Construction than what is
used for printing Copper Plates.

In Paris Jackson had suggested using a cylinder press for printing wood blocks. The gentlemen to whom the suggestion was made, Count de Caylus, Coypel, and Mariette, were sure that the enormous pressure would split the blocks. The Englishman, on the contrary, felt that the pressure, properly controlled by a chase, would hold the blocks together. Printing would be much more rapid and the exceptional vigor of the impression would suggest a hand drawing. The use of cylinder presses for chiaroscuro printing was already well known to experts. George Lallemand and Ludolph Businck, sometime between 1623 and 1640, had used not one but a series of six cylinders on three joined presses, with three printers simultaneously inking separate blocks with different tones. Impressions were then printed from each block in succession. Papillon[26] described this press, and also another with a special chase designed at an unspecified date by Nicolas Le Sueur. Jackson’s prints show a much stronger impression than those of Businck or Le Sueur. No details of his press are known, although Thomas Bewick[27] reported that Jackson as an old man had shown him a drawing of its construction.

[Footnote 26: Papillon, vol. 2, 1766, pp. 372-373.]

[Footnote 27: Bewick, 1925, p. 213.]

The cylinder press of Jackson’s design was finished in 1735 and paid for by the income from prolonged sieges of work for printing offices. But the overwork and resulting exhaustion laid him low; a serious illness followed and for several months he was close to death. When he eventually regained his health he found that his cuts for Baglioni and Pezzana had been copied and mutilated by an engraver at Ancona. This pirate was encouraged by the head of a large printing establishment newly founded in Venice, who thereupon offered Jackson work at greatly reduced prices. He refused the offer. With hack woodcutters now stealing both his designs and his manner of cutting, and working at a far lower rate than he could afford, he found that the market for his higher priced work had almost entirely disappeared. He still received occasional commissions, among others the title page to a translation of Suetonius’ _Lives of the Twelve Caesars_, printed by Piacentini in Venice in 1738. His splendid design, which shows considerable burin work, is at odds with the crudity of the remainder of the book. Inferior hands reproduced in woodcut outline Hubert Goltzius’ medallion portraits of Roman emperors, originally executed in chiaroscuro (see p. 22). Stimulated, no doubt, by the combination of chiaroscuro and antiquity, Jackson produced a portrait of Julius Caesar in four tones of brown after Egidius Sadeler’s engraving of a subsequently lost painting attributed to Titian. This was not the only time Jackson translated a line engraving and added chiaroscuro modeling of his own. He did not make line-for-line copies. Jackson was interested in broad effects even when leaning heavily on the delicate linear conventions of line engraving. The lines, therefore, are firm and widely spaced, like photographically enlarged details of copper-plate work. Apparently Jackson felt that the addition of one or two tones from wood blocks would supply the intermediate tints and at the same time would prevent the line system from becoming obtrusive.

The decided influence of line engraving was probably the result of his association in 1731 with G. A. Faldoni in Venice. Influenced by Claude Mellan, this engraver made use of swelling parallel lines to create tonal gradations. Jackson had first become interested in this technical method through Ecman’s woodcuts after Callot, and once Faldoni had strengthened the attraction he found kindred influences in the engravings of Villamena and Alberti, particularly the former, from whom he also acquired design ideas he later put to use in his wallpapers. Jackson’s discovery that he could to some extent use copper-plate techniques was not a reversion to the style of the Parisian group of Le Clerc copyists. Jackson used the line system as a means for creating forms in conjunction with tones; the Parisian woodcutters used it to imitate the delicate quality of line engraving. He had a formal aesthetic end in view; their purpose was to render realistic details in a decorative framework.

With opportunities for book illustration gone, Jackson was in a difficult position. His novel chiaroscuro experiments had consumed valuable time and had lost him his standing as a steady worker for printers. Near destitution and scouting around for fresh applications of the woodcut, he decided to make prints for wallpaper on his new press. It was a logical step for Jackson, not only because he knew something of the process but also because he could make use of the chiaroscuro blocks already prepared. Late in 1737 or early in 1738 he had his first samples ready and sent them to Robert Dunbar in London, together with his conditions for carrying on the trade in Venice. Negotiations dragged, and Dunbar died before they could come to terms, but the idea of using his skill and his machine for turning out wallpaper continued to occupy his mind as a possibility. But, for the time, the undertaking had to be laid aside while Jackson looked for more immediate means of employment.

At this juncture Joseph Smith befriended him. A merchant of long standing in Venice, who became the British consul there in 1745, Smith was a bibliophile, gem collector, and connoisseur of the arts. In spite of Walpole’s sneering reference to him as “the merchant of Venice,” it must be said that he was expert in his fields of interest. He had excellent taste. His fine collection of books was purchased by George III in 1765, and the small Rembrandt _Descent from the Cross_ once in his possession is now in the National Gallery in London.

From Smith’s bronze statuette of Neptune, by Giovanni da Bologna, Jackson produced a chiaroscuro print in four blocks, in imitation, he asserted, of the prints of Andrea Andreani.[28] In suggesting the influence of this master, Jackson did not refer to his technique or style but to his subject: in 1584-1585 Andreani had produced a chiaroscuro series after other statues by Giovanni da Bologna (B. XII, VI, 1-4).

[Footnote 28: The _Neptune_ was printed on a type press. One of
the blocks split in printing and Jackson stated that thereafter he
used the cylinder press exclusively.]

The next work in Smith’s collection to be reproduced in chiaroscuro was Rembrandt’s _Descent from the Cross_. Jackson was evidently well satisfied with the results, and with good reason. It is an extremely effective print, with pale yellow lights and transparent shadows. The drawing is remarkable in its feeling for the Rembrandtesque style. The sky and other parts show English white-line burin work of the type found in Mattaire’s _Latin Classics_ and Croxall’s _Aesop’s Fables_. The _Enquiry_ says (p. 45):

As this Painting was extremely favourable for this sort of Printing,
he endeavoured to display all his Art in this Performance, and the
Drawing of _Rembrandt’s_ Stile is intirely preserved in this Print;
it is dedicated to Mr. _Smith_, who generously gave the Prints to
all Gentlemen who came to _Venice_ at that time in order to
recommend the Talents of a Man whose Industry might please the
curious, and at least be of some Use to procure him Encouragement to
proceed in other Works of that Kind.

Encouragement soon came. Smith interested two of his friends, Charles Frederick and Smart Lethieullier, and the three proposed in 1739 the undertaking of a grand project in chiaroscuro, the reproduction of 17 huge paintings by Venetian masters. This was to be financed by subscription, says the _Enquiry_ (p. 46):

the Proposals in _French_, and the Conditions expressed therein,
were drawn up as they thought proper, without consulting the
Difficulties that must attend an Enterprize that required some years
to accomplish.

Their own subscriptions were no doubt generous but Jackson found that his total income from this form of financing, together with possible future sales, would hardly cover his expenses. Other hazards made his situation even worse. War broke out in Europe before he was halfway through, and many English gentlemen, his potential subscribers, left the country. This exodus meant financial disaster, but Jackson kept at his task. He should, he said, have gone to England for his own best interests but felt that he couldn’t disappoint his distinguished patrons.

The first print completed was after Titian’s _St. Peter Martyr_ at the Dominican Church of Sts. Giovanni and Paolo. In coloring it is similar to the Rembrandt print, with gray-green sky, yellow lights, and cool brown shadows. While attractive and forceful, it is not as effective as the Rembrandt because Titian, with his greater range of color, presented a more complex problem. Most of the prints thereafter leaned to monochromes in either browns or greens. The _St. Peter_ was finished in 1739 and in the same year five more prints were brought to completion.

In 1740 he produced the three sheets which made up Tintoretto’s _Crucifixion_ in the Scuola di San Rocco.[29] These were intended to be joined, if desired, to form one long print measuring about 22 × 50 inches.

[Footnote 29: Jackson mentioned that he was seen drawing the
blocks in the presence of Sir Roger Newdigate, Sir Bouchier Wrey
“and other gentlemen of distinction.” The reason for such
reference was probably some comment that he might have traced his
outlines from Agostino Carracci’s 1582 engraving of the same
subject in three large sheets (B. 23), each of which joins the
others at precisely the same places as Jackson’s sheets. I am
indebted to Dr. Jakob Rosenberg of the Fogg Museum for pointing
out these similarities.]

Of the ten remaining subjects, the last, Jacopo Bassano’s _Dives and Lazarus_, was finished at the end of 1743, and the set of 24 plates (some paintings, as noted, were reproduced in three sheets and some in two) was published as a bound volume by J. B. Pasquali in Venice, 1745, under the title _Titiani Vecelii, Pauli Caliarii, Jacobi Robusti et Jacobi de Ponte; opera selectiora a Joanne Baptista Jackson, Anglo, ligno coelata et coloribus adumbrata_.

The Venetian prints were not merely an extension of chiaroscuro, they represented a daring effort to go beyond line engraving for reproducing paintings. Justification for this attempt is given in the _Essay_ (p. 6):

... and though those delicate Finishings, and minute Strokes, which
make up great Part of the Merit of engraving on Copper, are not to
be found in those cut on Wood in _Chiaro Oscuro_; yet there is a
masterly and free Drawing, a boldness of Engraving and Relief, which
pleases a true Taste more than all the little Exactness found in the
Engravings on Copper Plates ... and indeed has an Effect which the
best Judges very often prefer to any Prints from Engravings, done
with all that Exactness, minute Strokes of the Graver, and Neatness
of Work, which is sure to captivate the Minds of those whose Taste
is formed upon the little Considerations of delicately handling the
Tools, and not upon the Freedom, Life and Spirit of the separate
Figures, and indeed the whole Composition.

A novel device, embossing, was employed to give added strength to the prints. This development had been foreshadowed by earlier prints and pages of text which showed a slight indentation where the dampened paper received the impression. Embossing had probably first been used systematically by Elisha Kirkall in 1722-24, and by Arthur Pond in his chiaroscuros, made in 1732-36 in conjunction with George Knapton, after drawings by old masters. Jackson admired Pond’s work even though it combined etched outlines with two tone blocks printed from wood.[30] Pond’s embossing was delicate and applied sparely only in certain forms, such as ruined columns, but Jackson’s sunken areas were heavier and franker, consciously intended to give an all-over effect. Since the paper could not be pressed out without weakening the embossing, it often took on the scarred and buckled look that characterizes the Venetian chiaroscuros.

[Footnote 30: _Enquiry_, p. 35. The Japanese began to use
embossing about 1730. See Reichel, 1926, p. 48.]

The set had occupied him for 4½ years, during which he had planned, cut, and proofed 94 blocks.

No sooner was that ended, and a little Breathing required after that
immense Fatigue, in the Year 1744 he attempted to print in Colours,
and published six Landskips in Imitation of Painting in Acquarello.

This new set, dedicated to Robert d’Arcy, British Ambassador to the Republic of Venice, was based on gouache paintings by Marco Ricci, probably done on goatskin or leather in his usual manner. For Jackson to make these color prints was a logical step, since his work had tended toward the full chromatic range even in the chiaroscuros, which “adumbrated” color. His new prints were all color-- clear, sensitive, and tonally just. It is not surprising that he seized upon Ricci’s opaque watercolors. The paintings of the Venetian masters had darkened in ill-lit churches, the shadows had become murky, there were too many figures. But the Ricci paintings were small and clearly patterned, the color sparkled.

The original gouaches have not been located, but from other examples in the same manner, in Buckingham Palace and in the Uffizi, it is plain that Jackson took certain liberties. Ricci’s rather sharp colors were considerably modified and mellowed when they weren’t changed entirely: witness the two sets in different harmonies in the British Museum. Peter A. Wick (1955) believes it most likely that Jackson did not copy specific paintings, and suggests that details from Ricci’s etchings and gouaches were combined and freely amended to create Ricci-like designs.

Having determined his color scheme Jackson cut seven to ten blocks, each designed to bear an individual color which was to combine with others when necessary to form new colors. No outline block was used. To obtain variations from light to dark in each pigment Jackson scraped down the blocks with a knife; he thus lowered the surfaces slightly and created porous textures which would introduce the white paper or the underlying color. Examination of the prints clearly shows granular textures in the light areas. Scraping to lighten impressions was a common procedure in black-and-white printmaking, and was described by both Papillon and Bewick. In addition Jackson no doubt used underlays, that is, small pieces of paper pasted in layers of diminishing size on the backs of the blocks where the color was most intense. The pressure was therefore greatest in the deepest notes and lightest in the scraped parts. The copper plate press enabled Jackson to get good register without making marks on the blocks. The paper was dampened and fastened to the chase at one end. After each impression the next inked block was slid into the chase and printed wet into wet. Problems of register were eliminated because the sheets were held in place at all times, the blocks fitting the same form. No doubt the paper was sprinkled with water on the reverse side after each impression to eliminate shrinking and to keep it soft for printing. This method would explain Jackson’s transparent effects.

Although the Ricci prints were certainly the most ambitious and complexly planned prints of the century, the cutting is crisp and decisive and the effect fresh and unlabored. As in the Venetian set embossing is consciously applied. Most likely Jackson impressed the finished prints, specially redampened for the purpose, with one or two of the uninked blocks. Jackson interpreted Ricci’s qualities with great spirit, and in doing so he liberated the color woodcut from its old conventions. The “true”-color prints he produced in the medium preceded the Japanese, if not the Chinese.[31] In Japan, it must be remembered, simple color printing in rose and green supplanted hand coloring in about 1741, and rudimentary polychrome prints can be dated as early as 1745, but, as Binyon[32] puts it, “it was not until 1764 that the first rather tentative _nishiki-ye_, or complete colour-prints were produced in Yedo, and the long reign of the Primitives came to an end.”

[Footnote 31: Altdorfer’s _Beautiful Virgin of Ratisbon_, about
1520, (B. 51, vol. 8, p. 78) made use of five colors in some
impressions (Lippmann describes one with seven colors) but these
were used primarily for decorative, not naturalistic purposes.]

[Footnote 32: Laurence Binyon, _A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese
Woodcuts in the British Museum_, London, 1916, p. xx,
introduction.]

In making his Ricci prints Jackson sought a method of color printing that would overcome the deficiencies of Jacob Christoph Le Blon’s three-color mezzotint process. Le Blon, a Frenchman born in Germany, had begun experimenting with color printing as early as 1705. His idea was to split the chromatic components of a picture into three basic hues-- blue, red, and yellow-- in gradations of intensity so that varying amounts of color, each on a separate copper plate, could be printed in superimposition to reconstitute the original picture. This was based upon a simplification of Newton’s seven primaries. Later, Le Blon added a fourth, black plate. Incredibly, this is the principle of modern commercial color printing, the only difference being that Le Blon did not have a camera, color filters, and the halftone screen at his disposal and had to make the separations by hand. Le Blon came to London in 1719, produced an enormous number of color prints, published his _Coloritto, or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting_ in a very small edition about 1722 (it is undated), and shortly thereafter failed disastrously. About 1733 he returned to Paris, where he attracted a few followers. Most of his prints have disappeared, only about fifty being known at present.

The idea of full-color printing, then, was in the air, although later, in the _Enquiry_, Jackson took pains to state that he had not been following in the footsteps of the Frenchman, who, he claimed, had made serious mistakes.

The Curious may think that this Tentamine was taken from the
celebrated Mr. _le Blond_; I must here take the Liberty to explain
the Difference.... Numbers are convinced already, that the printing
Copper-plates done with _Fumo_ or _Mezzotinto_, are the most subject
to wear out the soonest of any sort of Engraving on that Metal. Had
this one Article been properly considered, _le Blond_, must have
seen the impossibility of printing any Quantity from his repeated
Impressions of Blue, Red, and Yellow Plates, so as to produce only
Twenty of these printed Pictures to be alike. This is obvious to
every one who has any Knowledge, or has seen the cleaning of
Copper-plates after the Colour was laid on; the delicate finishing
of the Flesh must infallibly wear out every time the Plate is
cleaned, and all the tender light Shadowing of any Colour must soon
become white in proportion as the Plate wears. The Nature of
Impression being overlooked at first, was the principal Cause that
Undertaking came to nothing, notwithstanding the immense Expence the
Proprietors were at to have a few imperfect Proofs at best, since it
is evident they could be no other. The new invented Method of
printing in Colours by Mr. _Jackson_ is under no Apprehension of
being wore out so soon.... Whatever has been done by our _English_
Artist, was all printed with Wood Blocks with a strong Relievo, and
in Substance sufficient to draw off almost any number that may be
required.

What Jackson neglected to mention was the difficulty of repeating transparent color effects with large planks of wood. Few existing impressions match each other and some prints are off register. What saved him was his fine color sense, his brilliance as a woodcutter, and his disinclination to make literal color reproductions.

The work that Jackson left behind became a part of the cultural heritage of Venice, valued on its own account as well as for its connection with the city. Zanetti[33] describes the Venetian set and Zanotto,[34] in his _Guida_ of 1856, urges a visit to the Chiesa Abaziale della Misericordia, which evidently had on permanent exhibition a “perfectly unique collection of woodcuts in various colors by Jackson, quite unmatched.”

[Footnote 33: Zanetti, 1792, pp. 689, 716.]

[Footnote 34: Zanotto, 1856, p. 320, note 3.]

Gallo[35] says that some of Jackson’s blocks found their way to the printing house of the Remondini and were used to strike off new impressions, after which they became the property of the Typografia Pozzato in Bassano. This might explain some of the inferior examples of the Venetian set which could hardly have come from the presses of Jackson or Pasquali.

[Footnote 35: Gallo, 1941, pp. 23-23. Jackson’s blocks are not
listed in the Remondini catalog of 1817.]

_England Again: The Wallpaper Venture_

Jackson was married in Venice-- whether to an Italian we do not know-- and when he left the city in 1745 to return to England he took a family along. He mentions “an impoverish’d Family” in the _Essay_, but beyond this we know nothing of his personal life.

As soon as he arrived in England he was invited to work in a calico establishment, where he remained about six years. But making drawings to be printed on cloth failed to give him the scope he required. At the back of his mind was the passion to work with woodblocks in color. This led him to take a bold and hazardous step-- to leave his position and attempt, obviously with little capital, the manufacture of wallpaper, not to please an established taste but to educate the public to a new type of product.

Wallpaper had come into popular use in England in the late 17th century, having been obtained from China by the East India Company. These hand-painted wall hangings, imported at great cost and in small quantities, were correspondingly expensive. The subjects were gay and fanciful-- birds, fans, Chinese kiosks, pagodas, and flowers. Highly desired because they offered an escape from the heavy grandeur of the Baroque style, they were subsequently imitated by assembly-line methods. They fitted naturally into the developing _rocaille_ style (corrupted into Rococo outside of France), and it is not surprising that they were also produced extensively in Paris. In England these imitations, which formed a substitute for expensive velvet and damask hangings, completely dominated the wallpaper field.

The first notice of Jackson’s venture appeared in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of February 1752.[36] A letter signed “Y. D.” praised the editor “Sylvanus Urban” for attempting to revive the art of cutting on wood. It mentioned that this art was in decline for more than a century, but noted that--

Two of our countrymen, _E. Kirkall_ and _J. B. Jackson_, ought to be
exempted from this general charge; the former having a few years ago
introduced the _Chiaro Oscuro_ of _Hugo de Carpi_ into England,
though he met with no extraordinary encouragement for his ingenuity;
and the art had died with him had not the latter attempted to revive
it, but with less encouragement than his predecessor. _Mr. Jackson_,
however, has lately invented a new method of printing paper hangings
from blocks, which is very ornamental, and exceeds the common method
of paper-staining (as it is termed) by the delicacy of his drawings,
the novelty of his designs, and the masterly arrangement of his
principal figures.

[Footnote 36: Vol. 22, pp. 77-79.]

The next notice appeared in the _London Evening Post_ of April 30-May 2, 1752:

New invented PAPER HANGINGS, printed in Oyl, which prevents the
fading or changing of the Colours; as also Landscapes printed in
Colours, by J. B. Jackson, Reviver of the Art of printing in Chiaro
Oscuro, are to be had at Dunbar’s Warehouse in Aldermanbury, London;
or Mr. Gibson’s, Bookseller, opposite the St. Alban’s Tavern in
Charles-street near St. James’s-Square, and no where else.

Several months afterwards, in the September 1752 issue of _Gentleman’s Magazine_, publication of the _Enquiry into the Origins of Printing in Europe_ was announced.

The _Enquiry_ is an odd book. It combines rewritten versions of two Jackson manuscripts, a study of the origins of printing in Europe and an autobiographical journal covering, we suppose, the years from about 1725 on. The writer, in his introduction, says that he had been attracted by the two notices mentioned and went to see Jackson, whom he already knew by reputation. As a “Lover of Art” he considered it his duty to acquaint the public with Jackson’s ideas concerning the origins of printing. These ideas, he felt, were an important contribution. After devoting half the little book to a rambling account of this subject, including a short history of woodcutting from Dürer onward, the author suddenly shifts to the journal. It is regrettable that he condensed it because we do not know what was left out. It is possible that much autobiographical information was excluded, as well as a picture of woodcutters and woodcutting of the time. The book concludes with the statement that Jackson intended to print in October of that year (1752) a paper hanging in two sheets after an original painting “by _F. Simonnetta_ of _Parma_”[37] representing the battle fought near that city in 1738.

[Footnote 37: There is little doubt that Jackson meant Francesco
Simonini (1686-1753), a painter of battle subjects who was born in
Parma and lived in Venice in the 1740’s.]

This print was to be in full color, 3 feet 6 inches long by 2 feet high, and was to serve as a specimen for a series of four of the same size, the others being “History, Pictures and Landscapes.” They were to be done by subscription:

No Money will be required of the Subscribers till the Prints are
finished, and only at the Delivery. It is to be hoped the Curious
and the Public will encourage this Undertaking, by a Man who has
spent the greatest Part of his Life in searching after and improving
an Art, believed by all to be lost, and has restored it to the
Condition we now see it in his Works.

The only known copy of this battle picture, made from about seven blocks, is in the Print Room of the British Museum. It is a magnificent piece. Probably nothing with this breadth of handling had ever been done in woodcut before. The color is grave and beautifully harmonized, although the paper has deteriorated and the colors have darkened somewhat. The blocks were cut with ardor, almost fury; everything is brought to life with masterly assurance. Martin Hardie, who made the only previous comment on this print, which he could only surmise was Jackson’s, says:[38] “Jackson’s supreme achievement is a large battle scene, with wonderful masses of rich colour superbly blended, reminiscent of Velasquez in breadth, in dignity, and in glory of tone.”

[Footnote 38: Hardie, 1906, p. 23.]

There were competitors in London, among them Matthias Darley, who produced papers in the Chinese style; Thomas Bromwich, who was patronized by Walpole; and Robert Dunbar, Jr., of Aldermanbury, who in addition sold Jackson’s papers. They lacked both Jackson’s gifts and his unreasonable standards but they produced more generally acceptable wallpaper with greater facility. These competitors did not work in oil colors, like Jackson. Transparent tints were too difficult to control, especially when applied with inking balls (composition rollers did not come into use until well after 1800), and effects were too heavy. They used distemper-- powdered color mixed with glue and water, with chalk added to give body. This was sometimes applied with woodblock or stencil but most often it was simply painted in by hand over a blockprinted outline. Often the painting was done directly on the wall after the paper was hung. These wallpapers were weak when examined critically, but nobody worried as long as a light bright pastel effect was obtained. Jackson’s vigorous drawing and woodcutting were out of place in this field. They were, like his tonal exactitude that made holes in the wall, a distraction and an offense against interior decoration.

Jackson’s business, therefore, did not prosper. In a last effort to stir up public interest he published, in 1754, his well-known little book, _An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro_, illustrated with eight prints in “proper colours.” It sold for two shillings and sixpence. The style was rather florid but his arguments were presented with such vigor that it is easy to see why critics have found it difficult to refrain from quoting at length. The main body of text is only eight pages long, with an additional eight pages of subsidiary descriptive material attached to the pictures.

On the title page appeared his favorite passage from Pascal, used previously on the title page of the _Enquiry_: “Ceux qui sont capables d’inventer sont rares: ceux qui n’inventent point sont en plus grand nombre, et par conséquent les plus forts.” The first few pages of the _Essay_ enlarge on this theme:

It has been too generally the Fate of those who set themselves to
the Inventing any Thing that requires Talents in the Discovery, to
apply all their Faculties, exhaust their Fortune, and waste their
whole Time in bringing that to Perfection, which when obtained, Age,
Death, or Want of sufficient Supplies, obliges them to relinquish,
and to yield all the Advantages which their Hopes had flattered them
with, and which had supported their Spirits during their Fatigues
and Difficulties, to others; and thus leave behind them an
impoverish’d Family incapable to carry on their Parent’s Design, and
too often complaining of the projecting Genius of that Father who
has ruin’d them, tho’ he has enriched the Nation to which he
belonged, and to which of Consequence he was a laudable Benefactor.

He proceeds in this bitter vein for a time, then brings into the open the main purpose of the book:

Another Reason perhaps is, that the Artist being totally engaged in
the Pursuit of his Discovery, has but little Time to apply to the
Lovers and Encouragers of Art for their Patronage, Protection, and
Supplies necessary for the carrying on such a Design, or he has not
Powers to set the Advantage which would result from it in a true
Light; nor communicate in Words what he clearly conceived in Idea:
for certainly there are Men enough, who from the mere Desire of
increasing their Wealth, would give him that Assistance, which, like
the artificial Heat of a Greenhouse, would bring that Art to a
Ripeness, which would otherwise languish and die under the Coldness
of the first Designer, and which in this Union of Riches and
Invention would yield mutual Advantage to both.

There are besides this amongst the Great, without Doubt, many who
would gladly lend their Patronage to rising Arts, if they knew their
Authors....

He gives as example the Duke of Cumberland, who had just sponsored a tapestry plant at Fulham, and follows with an outline of the honorable traditions of the woodcut, pointing out that Dürer, Titian, Salviati, Campagnola, and other painters drew their work on woodblocks to be cut by woodcutters, and adds that “even _Andrea Vincentino_ did not think it in the least a Dishonour, though a Painter, to grave on Wood the Landscapes of _Titian_.” He builds up to the statement that Raphael and Parmigianino drew on woodblocks to be cut in chiaroscuro by Ugo da Carpi.

After having said all this, it may seem highly improper to give to
Mr. _Jackson_ [he speaks of himself throughout in the third person]
the Merit of inventing this Art; but let me be permitted to say,
that an Art recovered is little less than an Art invented. The Works
of the former Artists remain indeed; but the Manner in which they
were done, is entirely lost: the inventing then the Manner is really
due to this latter Undertaker, since no Writings, or other Remains,
are to be found by which the Method of former Artists can be
discover’d, or in what Manner they executed their works; nor, in
Truth, has the _Italian_ Method since the Beginning of the 16th
Century been attempted by any one except Mr. _Jackson_.

We cannot help concluding that Jackson was falsifying here. Taking advantage of the public’s ignorance, he was puffing up his historical importance in order to sell wallpaper. If the _cognoscenti_ complained that he had buried the chiaroscurists after da Carpi, he always had the explanation that others did not work in the Italian style, which he neglected to describe. Jackson knew what he was doing; he was not as ignorant of art history as Hardie and Burch have surmised, although it is true that he was not always certain as to dates, since he believed Andreani worked as a contemporary of da Carpi. In the _Enquiry_, published only two years earlier, he had shown familiarity with the prints of Goltzius, Coriolano, Businck, Nicolas and Vincent Le Sueur, Moretti, and Zanetti, all of whom had worked to some extent in the Italian manner.

Some writers have reacted strongly to this paragraph. Losing their sense of proportion, they have been led to the conclusion that Jackson was little better than a charlatan and that his work as a whole reflected his low ethics. In some instances his culpability has been magnified: Bénézit has even charged him with claiming to have invented color printing.

The worst result of Jackson’s insistence on re-inventing the Italian manner was that it made a major issue of what was at best a minor honor. It minimized such technical contributions as the following, which did not follow traditional recipes:

... Mr. _Jackson_ has invented ten positive Tints in _Chiaro
Oscuro_; whereas Hugo di Carpi knew but four; all of which can be
taken off by four Impressions only.

This technical system was used for the Venetian chiaroscuros, the portrait of Algernon Sidney after Justus Verus, and others. He did not mention that he needed a greater range of tones because he was working after oil paintings, not drawings. The introduction of full color from a series of blocks to translate water colors is also mentioned in the _Essay_, but with no greater emphasis than in the _Enquiry_. Since his wallpaper was to be done in color as well as in chiaroscuro, and since the _Essay_ included four plates in color, it is astonishing that Jackson failed to make stronger claims for his originality in this development.

He proceeded to describe his plan to replace wallpapers in the Chinese style with his papers, which, he stated, would have no “...gay glaring Colours in broad Patches of red, green, yellow, blue &c ... [with] no true Judgment belonging to it ... Nor are there Lions leaping from Bough to Bough like Cats, Houses in the Air, Clouds and Sky upon the Ground....”

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 Canaletto, 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 furnishing 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 classical 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 classical 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 passed 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 assign 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 album 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 title 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 album 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 assume, 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 quantity 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 noblemen 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 passage from Bewick’s _Memoir_ is the last evidence[42] bearing on Jackson: