Color prints before and after this period did not appeal to discriminating collectors 

 except as rarities, as exotic offshoots. Even chiaroscuros, with their few sober tones, 

 fell into this periphery. Jackson, as a result, was naturally excluded from the main 

 field of attention. 



The worship of black-and-white as die highest expression of the graphic arts * 

 automatically placed printmakers in color in one of two categories: producers of 

 abortive experiments, or purveyors of popular pictures to a frivolous or sentimental 

 pubHc. This estimate was unformnately true enough in most cases, true enough 

 at least to cause the practice to be regarded with suspicion. As an indication of how 

 things have changed in recent years we can say that color is no longer the excep- 

 tion. It threatens, in fact, to become the rule, and black-and-white now fights a 

 retreating battle. A comparison of any large exhibition today with one of even 20 

 years ago will make this plain. 



At first glance Jackson seems to be simply a belated 18th-century worker in 

 the chiaroscuro process. If to later generations his prints had a rather odd look, 

 this was to be expected. Native qualities, even a certain crudeness, were expected 

 from the English who lacked advantages of training and tradition. And Jackson 

 was not only the first English artist who worked in woodcut chiaroscuro, he was 

 virtually the first woodblock artist in England to rise beyond anonymity " (Elisha 

 Kirkall, as we shall see, cannot positively be identified as a wood engraver) and 

 he was the only one of note until Thomas Bewick arose to prominence about 1780. 

 He was, then, England's first outstanding woodcutter. We will find other in- 

 stances of his significance from the English standpoint, but his being English, of 

 course, would have a small part in explaining the importance of his prints. 



Jackson made, in fact, the biggest break in the traditions of the woodcut since 

 the 1 6th century. He broadened the scope of the chiaroscuro print and launched 



^ The purist's attitude was pungently expressed by Whistler. Pennell records this remark: "Black ink 

 on white paper was good enough for Rembrandt; it ought to be good enough for you." (Joseph Pennell, 

 The Graphic Arts, Chicago, 1921, p. 178.) 



^ The only earlier name is that of George Edwards. Oxford University has most of the blocks for a 

 decorated alphabet he engraved on end-grain wood for Dr. Fell in 1674. Further data on Edwards can be 

 found in Harry Carter's Wolvercote Mill, Oxford, 1957, pp. 14, 15, 20, and in Moxon's Mechanic^ 

 Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy Wor\s Applied to the Art of Printing. (Reprint of ist ed., 1683, 

 edited and annotated by Herbert Davis and Harry Carter, Oxford, 1958, p. 26n.) 



