Background

Jackson was born on March 31, 1778 in Lastingham, Yorkshire.

Education

Jackson was able to attend the Royal Academy Schools, where he befriended David Wilkie and B. R. Haydon.

He was a Royal Academy student from March 9, 1805.

Career

Jackson started his career as an apprentice tailor to his father, who opposed the artistic ambitions of his son. However, he enjoyed the support of Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave (1755-1831), who recommended him to the Earl of Carlisle, as well as that of Sir George Beaumont, 7th Baronet - who offered him residence at his own home and ₤50 per annum.

At Castle Howard, residence of the Earl of Carlisle, he could study and copy from a large collection of paintings. His watercolours were judged to be of uncommon quality. By 1807 his reputation as a portrait painter was assured, and he made the transition to oils steadily, if not easily, regularly forwarding paintings to Somerset House.

After a visit to the Netherlands and Flanders with Edmund Phipps in 1816, he accompanied Sir Francis Chantrey on a trip to Switzerland, Rome, Florence and Venice in 1819. In Rome he was elected to the Academy of St Luke. His portrait of Antonio Canova, painted on this trip, was regarded as being outstanding.

He died in St John's Wood, London.

Achievements

• Jackson was a prolific portraitist, strongly showing the influence of Sir Thomas Lawrence and Henry Raeburn in his work.
  
  His sitters included the Duke of Wellington, the explorer Sir John Franklin and some noted Wesleyan ministers.
  
  His 1823 portrait of Lady Dover, wife of George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover, was widely acclaimed.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • David Williams (1765–1810), Minister and Man of Letters

  • William Seguier

  • Admiral Lord Amelius Beauclerk (1771–1846)

  • Self Portrait

  • John Flaxman

  • Benjamin Edmonstone (1765–1841)

  • The Right Honourable William Saunders Sebright Lascelles (1798–1851), PC

  • Caroline Frankland, When a Child

  • An Unfinished Portrait of Mrs Soane, Painted from a Pencil Sketch by J. Flaxman, RA and a Miniature

  • Self Portrait

  • Portrait of a Lady (possibly Matilda Ward, the artist's second wife)

  • John Flaxman (1755–1826)

  • Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

  • Sir John Barrow, 1st Bt

  • Sir John Soane

  • The Right Honourable Lawrence, Lord Dundas, as Lord Mayor of York

  • Reverend John Fletcher

  • Thomas Stothard (1755–1834), RA

  • W. Naylor (1780–1868)

  • Portrait of a Young Man

  • Portrait of a Lady (Mrs Parry, the Mother of Sir W. E. Parry, RN)

  • William Seguier

  • Study for 'Bartholomew Johnson'

  • The Late Lord Mulgrave

  • Charles Grey (1764–1845), 2nd Earl Grey

  • John Latham (1761–1831)

  • John Jackson

  • Mr John Deffett

  • John Fitzgibbon (1792–1851), 2nd Earl of Clare, KP, GCH, PC

  • Sir William Beechey

  • Henry Bone

  • Lieutenant General John Manners (1721–1770), Marquess of Granby

  • Catherine Capel-Coningsby, née Stephens, Countess of Essex

  • James Abercromby, 1st Baron Dunfermline, Speaker

  • The Artist's Second Wife

  • Reverend Richard Watson (1781–1833)

  • Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689)

  • Mr Hopper

  • Miss Chester (Eliza Jane Chester) (1795–1859)

  • Reverend George Morley (1772–1843)

  • Henry William Greville (1801–1872)

  • John Hunter (copy after an original of 1786 by Sir Joshua Reynolds)

  • Reverend William Holwell Carr

  • Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876)

  • William Murray (1705–1793), 1st Earl of Mansfield

  • Charles James Stewart (1775–1837)

  • James Carrick Moore (1763–1834), Surgeon and Associate of Edward Jenner

  • Mary Somerville (1780–1872), as a Young Woman

  • Sir Henry Webb

  • Henry John, Viscount Ingestre (1803–1868)

  • Robert Grosvenor (1767–1845), 2nd Earl Grosvenor, Later 1st Marquess of Westminster, Mayor of Chester (1807), MP (1790–1802)

  • Thomas Stothard, RA

  • Reverend Joseph Taylor (1752–1830)

  • Samuel Prout

  • William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828)

  • Reverend John Wesley (1703–1791)

  • Sir Hew Whiteford Dalrymple (1750–1830), Bt, Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey (1796–1803)

  • The Right Honourable William Windham III (1750–1810), MP (after Thomas Lawrence)

  • Reginald MacDonald

  • Field Marshal HRH Frederick (1763–1827), Duke of York and Albany, KG, GCB, Bishop of Osnaburgh

  • William Charles Macready

  • Henry Cowper, Clerk Assistant in the Parliament Office (1785–1826)

  • Samuel Wesley

  • St Peter

  • John Wesley (1703–1791), Fellow (1726–1751)

  • Richard James Lane

  • The Artist's Father

  • Corbet Hue, the Very Reverend Dean of Jersey (1823–1837)

  • Portrait of the Artist's Daughter

  • Lady Caroline Edgcumbe (1792–1824)

  • Constantine Henry Phipps (1797–1863), 1st Marquess of Normanby

  • Mary Taft (1772–1851)

  • Reverend Robert Newton

  • William Charles Macready (1793–1873), as Macbth (from 'Macbeth', Act II, Scene 2)

  • Sir Joshua Reynolds (copy after Joshua Reynolds)

  • George III (1738–1820) (copy after Joshua Reynolds)

  • Portrait of a Woman in a Black Dress with a Gold Necklace

  • John Yelloly (1774–1842), MD, FRS

  • Grace Murray in Old Age

  • George Dance (1741–1825)

  • William ('Gentleman') Smith

  • George Hay Dawkins-Pennant (1764–1840)

  • Bartholomew Johnson

  • Richard Clement Headington (1774–1831)

  • A Jewish Rabbi

  • Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats (1757–1834)

  • Robert Tindal of Coval Hall (1749–1833), Father of Sir Nicholas Tindal

  • Self Portrait

  • Sir John Soane, in Masonic Costume, as Grand Superintendent and President of the Board of Works

  • James Wood (1760–1839), Master, Mathematician, Dean of Ely (1820)

  • William Wadd (1776–1829)

  • Reverend David McNicoll

  • John Wesley (1703–1791)

Membership

He was elected an Associate of the RA on 6 November 1815 and elected a full member on Feburary 10, 1817.

Connections

John Jackson was married twice - the first marriage was to the daughter of a jeweller, the second to the daughter of the painter James Ward.

Spouse:

Matilda Jackson

Son:

Mulgrave Phipps Jackson

Daughter:

Ida Augusta Jackson

Friend:

David Wilkie

Friend:

Benjamin Haydon