Manly Art Gallery & Museum presents Early Impressions. James R. Jackson, an exhibition on view 7 December – 27 January 2013.
For the first time, Manly Art Gallery & Museum presents a focus exhibition of the luminous early works of the highly regarded Sydney artist James R. Jackson
(1882 – 1975), who spent many years living in Seaforth, near Manly. They reveal a rarely seen side of the artist, whose painting Middle Harbour from Manly Heights of 1923, started the Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection.
Jackson’s early paintings – in the tradition of Australian impressionist painters such as Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and E. Phillips Fox – are highly regarded, but rarely seen.
Exhibition curators Hulme and Bänziger have brought together these 29 works for the first time with the aim of giving Jackson’s early paintings greater recognition and scholarly attention.
The works in this exhibition demonstrate how beautifully, even in his early career, Jackson handled light and shade. Sydney Harbour, European landscapes and Venetian boat scenes are the subjects of these early works.
The paintings in this exhibition have been drawn from the country’s finest museums and private collections. We are very grateful to institutions including the Art Gallery of NSW, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Benalla Art Gallery, Castlemaine Art Gallery and Tamworth Regional Gallery for their generous loans, as well as to the many private lenders who have agreed to part with their prized possessions to allow this focus exhibition to be staged at Manly, Jackson’s spiritual and artistic home.
– www.manly.nsw.gov.au