John Baptist Jackson

Jacob Kainen
John Baptist Jackson, by Jacob
Kainen

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Title: John Baptist Jackson 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut
Author: Jacob Kainen
Release Date: August 7, 2007 [EBook #22263]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION UNITED STATES NATIONAL
MUSEUM
[Illustration: Smithsonian symbol]
BULLETIN 222 WASHINGTON, D.C. 1962

United States Government Printing Office, Washington, 1962
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government
Printing Office
Washington 25, D.C.

John Baptist Jackson:
18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut

Jacob Kainen
Curator of Graphic Arts Museum of History and Technology

Publications of the United States National Museum
The scholarly publications of the United States National Museum
include two series, Proceedings of the United States National Museum

and United States National Museum Bulletin.
In these series are published original articles and monographs dealing
with the collections and work of the Museum and setting forth newly
acquired facts in the fields of Anthropology, Biology, History, Geology,
and Technology. Copies of each publication are distributed to libraries
and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in
the different subjects.
The Proceedings, begun in 1878, are intended for the publication in
separate form, of shorter papers. These are gathered in volumes, octavo
in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table of
contents of the volume.
In the Bulletin series, the first of which was issued in 1875, appear
longer, separate publications consisting of monographs (occasionally in
several parts) and volumes in which are collected works on related
subjects. Bulletins are either octavo or quarto in size, depending on the
needs of the presentation. Since 1902 papers relating to the botanical
collections of the Museum have been published in the Bulletin series
under the heading Contributions from the United States National
Herbarium.
This work forms number 222 of the Bulletin series.
REMINGTON KELLOGG
Director, United States National Museum

CONTENTS
Page
Preface IX Jackson and his Tradition 3 The Woodcut Tradition 4 Status
of the Woodcut 7 The Chiaroscuro Tradition 9 Jackson and his Work
13 England: Obscure Beginnings 14 Paris: Perfection of a Craft 17
Venice: The Heroic Effort 25 England Again: The Wallpaper Venture

40 Critical Opinion 51 Postscript 54 Catalog 69 Prints by Jackson 71
Jackson's Workshop 90 Unverified Subjects 95 The Chiaroscuros and
Color Woodcuts 97 Bibliography 171 Index to Plates 177 Index 181

PREFACE
John Baptist Jackson has received little recognition as an artist. This is
not surprising if we remember that originality in a woodcutter was not
considered a virtue until quite recently. We can now see that he was
more important than earlier critics had realized. He was the most
adventurous and ambitious of earlier woodcutters and a trailblazer in
turning his art resolutely in the direction of polychrome.
To 19th century writers on art, from whom we have inherited the bulk
of standard catalogs, lexicons, and histories-- along with their
judgments-- Jackson's work seemed less a break with tradition than a
corruption of it. His chiaroscuro woodcuts (prints from a succession of
woodblocks composing a single subject in monochrome light and shade)
were invariably compared with those of the 16th century Italians and
were usually found wanting. The exasperated tone of many critics may
have been the result of an uneasy feeling that he was being judged by
the wrong standards. The purpose of this monograph, aside from
providing the first full-length study of Jackson and his prints, is to
examine these standards. The traditions of the woodcut and the color
print will therefore receive more attention than might be expected, but I
feel that such treatment is essential if we are to appreciate Jackson's
contribution, in which technical innovation is a major element.
Short accounts of Jackson have appeared in almost all standard
dictionaries of painters and engravers and in numerous historical
surveys, but these have been based upon meager evidence. A fraction
of his work was usually known and
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