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

by Jacob Kainen

The most comprehensive biographical dictionary of artists in the English language.

Burch, R. M. Colour Printing and Colour Printers. London, 1910, pp. 72-77.

The most comprehensive general survey, but with more than occasional inaccuracies. There is a lack of sensitivity in art matters. These comments apply also to the section on Jackson.

Chatto, W., and Jackson, J. A Treatise on Wood-Engraving. London, 1861 (1st. ed. 1839), pp. 453-457.

The classic work on the subject; scholarly, objective, and voluminously illustrated. Has the fullest early account of Jackson and is the basis for most later studies of the artist.

Cust, L. “John Baptist Jackson,” Dictionary of National Biography. New York and London, 1885-1900, vol. 29, p. 100.

De Boni, F. Biografia degli artisti. Venice, 1840, p. 499.

Donnell, Edna. “The Van Rensselaer Wall Paper and J. B. Jackson—A Study in Disassociation.” Metropolitan Museum Studies, 1932, vol. 4, pp. 77-108.

The most scholarly study of Jackson’s wallpaper career. Shows, by an examination of styles, that Jackson could not have made the wallpapers indiscriminately attributed to him.