Samuel Jackson (artist)

Samuel Jackson

Two small figures sit on a cliff top above a river, which snakes through a wooded gorge towards the distant sea. Small boats sail along the river.

The Avon near Bristol, watercolour
Born (1794-12-31)31 December 1794
Bristol
Died 8 December 1869(1869-12-08) (aged 74)
Clifton, Bristol
Nationality English
Known for Watercolour, Oil painting

Samuel Jackson (31 December 1794 – 8 December 1869) was an English watercolourist and oil painter who has been called the "father" of the Bristol School of artists.[1] He also contributed a number of drawings of scenes from Bristol, England to the topographical collection of George Weare Braikenridge.[2] The Braikenridge Collection makes Bristol's early 19th century appearance one of the best documented of any English city.[3][4]

Biography

Jackson was born on 31 December 1794 in Bristol. His father was an accountant and later a drysalter.[1] Jackson became a professional artist by 1822, primarily a watercolourist of landscapes.[2] In 1823 Jackson was elected an associate member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours.[1]

Braikenridge commissioned him to produce less than 30 watercolours, but collected many more of Jackson's Bristol scenes. His Bristol watercolours of the mid 1820s were his most highly regarded work, and have been called the most important part of the work of the Bristol School.[2] John Lewis Roget called him "the father of the school".[1]

Jackson was a lifelong friend of Francis Danby, whose influence is present in his watercolours.[2] He may have been Danby's pupil. In 1823 he collaborated with Danby and James Johnson in a lithography project.[1]

In 1824 Jackson was one of the organisers of the first exhibition by local artists at the new Bristol Institution.[1] He also seems to have participated from 183233 in the revival of the Bristol School's sketching meetings.[5]

In 1832 he was the most eminent artist in the first exhibition of the Bristol Society of Artists, and later he continued to play a large role in that society's successor, the Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts.[1]

Jackson may have visited the West Indies in 1827; he exhibited West Indian subjects at the Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1828 and 1831. By the 1830s Jackson was also producing scenes of Devon and Wales, and may have visited Switzerland in 1855 and 1858 to produce watercolours of mountain scenery.[6]

He died on 8 December 1869 at Clifton, Bristol.[1] His son was the landscape and marine painter Samuel Phillips Jackson (183094).[2]

The Braikenridge Collection is in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Greenacre, Francis (2004). "Jackson, Samuel (1794–1869)". In Matthew, H.C.G.; Harrison, Brian. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 29. Oxford University Press. p. 522. ISBN 0-19-861379-2.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Stoddard, Sheena (2001). Bristol before the Camera: The City in 1820–30. Bristol: Redcliffe. pp. 106–107. ISBN 1-900178-68-0.
  3. Gomme, A.; Jenner, M.; Little, B. (1979). Bristol: an architectural history. London: Lund Humphries. p. 11. ISBN 0-85331-409-8.
  4. Foyle, Andrew (2004). Pevsner Architectural Guide, Bristol. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-300-10442-1.
  5. Greenacre, Francis; Stoddard, Sheena (1991). W.J. Müller. Bristol: The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery. pp. 50–55. ISBN 0-9507242-1-1.
  6. Greenacre, Francis (1973). The Bristol School of Artists: Francis Danby and Painting in Bristol 1810–1840 (exhibition catalogue). Bristol: City Art Gallery, Bristol. p. 143.
  7. Stoddard, Sheena (2001). Bristol before the Camera: The City in 1820–30. Bristol: Redcliffe. p. 5. ISBN 1-900178-68-0.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.