JACKSON, Gilbert - b. ~1595 ?, d. ~1650 ?

English painter. He was an itinerant portrait painter whose origins are unknown; he is documented as painting from about 1620 to about 1640 from recorded commissions and signed and dated paintings. He was made free of the Painter-Stainers Company in London in December 1640, but he had probably been active before that date in the provinces as well as in London. He was patronized by country families and by members of the learned professions. He does not appear to have worked for the court.

His style changed little within the period in which he is known to have been working. His earliest works, such as the portrait of Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester (1621; private collection), were influenced by George Geldorp or Paul van Somer, but he was only superficially influenced by van Dyck. His portraits are provincial, if not archaic, in style, rough and unpolished in quality. The sense of character is lively and sympathetic, and the attention to detail and colour (which is often very pretty) may reflect the influence of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. The compositions, however, though often decorative, are flat and linear.

Jackson’s sitters seldom appear to stand convincingly in space, though the space itself, whether an interior or a landscape, is often interestingly delineated. His manner is close to that of Edward Bower and is most clearly illustrated in full-length portraits, such as William Hickman (1634; private collection), Portrait of a Boy (private collection) and Lord Bellasys (1636; National Portrait Gallery, London). His signature, written in a distinctive spiky script, is sometimes shortened to the form Gil. Jack.

Portrait of Jane, Countess of Winchester

This signed and dated painting represents the three-quarter length portrait of Jane, n�e Savage, Countess of Winchester (1606-1631) wearing a red embroidered d�collet� dress, standing by a green-upholstered chair decorated with gold stitching. She was a noted court beauty, and her passing was noted in verses by Milton and Jonson. The present painting was commissioned to mark her demise, and finished the year after her death.

Jackson’s art is purely English, and little influenced by the arrival in England of such painters as Paul van Somer, Daniel Mytens or Anthony van Dyck. His work looks back to the flat hieratic style of the late Elizabethan Court, and he devotes infinite care to the rendition of surfaces, colours and textures whilst seeming to be indifferent to the niceties of perspective.