F. Ernest Jackson

Francis Ernest Jackson was born in Lockwood, Huddersfield, Yorkshire in 1872. The son of a printer, he was apprenticed to a firm of lithographers in Leeds. With aspirations to become an artist, he attended life-drawing classes at the Yorkshire College and was eventually sent to Paris, where he studied under academic greats including Bouguereau, Ferrier, Laurens and Benjamin Constant. On his return to England he made a living from designing lithographic posters and portraits. He continued to be fond of lithography and dedicated himself to reviving it as an artistic medium. He experimented successfully with colour lithography and began teaching the craft at L.C.C. schools including Bolt Court, Camberwell, Croydon and Chelsea.

In 1902, W.R. Lethaby invited him to join the staff at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Five years later he established The Neolith, a magazine produced entirely with lithography, with Grailly Hewitt and others. Shortly afterwards he became one of the four founding members of the Senefelder Club, an organisation aimed at advancing the cause of lithography. In 1913 he suggested to Frank Pick - then advertising manager for the Underground trains - that a series of posters should be produced by members of the club. Pick agreed and the posters were such a success that the Underground (and London Transport) began a long tradition of advertising posters designed by leading artists. During the First World War, he was given the responsibility of producing the 'Work and Ideals' posters for the Ministry of Propaganda.

In 1913, Jackson also founded The Imprint with fellow Central School teachers Edward Johnston and J.H. Mason, with publisher Gerard Meynell. A journal concerned with raising the level of printing and typography and spreading knowledge of the processes of reproduction.

Around 1917/18, Jackson also initiated a series of prints that became known as the LCC School Pictures series. Little is known about the series, but the series is almost certainly a pre-cursor to the post-WW2 series of School Prints, an initiative started by Brenda Rawnsley in the 1940s. Jackson's initiative, organized through the LCC, was to invite leading artists to produce prints for school's to buy or subscribe to - for instructional purposes. Several prints were made and the Museum and Contemporary Collection at Central Saint Martins features contributions by Jackson himself, Noel Rooke, A.S. Hartrick, and Francis Unwin.

Jackson was a hugely influential teacher, and when he left the Central School on 1921 he became Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools under Charles Sims. He subsequently taught at the Byam Shaw School of Art and 1926 became Principal of the school. He was later appointed to the Faculties of Engraving and Painting at the British School in Rome and in 1928 was elected Master of the Art Workers' Guild.In 1940 both Byam Shaw and the Academy Schools closed due to the war, and Jackson was commissioned by the Ministry of Information and the Admiralty to draw portraits of war heroes. He continued to paint with vigour, being elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1944. He died the following year.

The Collection contains few actual examples of Jackson's work, though we do have his School Print - of the Tower of London - and a handful of books, as well as bound issues of The Imprint.

Our thanks to Margaret Bear for information regarding the LCC School Prints series.
Author: SRB