Gilbert Jackson was primarily patronised by country families and by members of the learned professions. As our portrait shows, his style had its roots in the linear, emblematic tradition of Elizabethan portraiture. The attention to detail may reflect the influence of Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561-1636), although his manner is close to that of Edward Bower (d. 1666). His signature, written in a distinctive spiky script, is here painted using vermillion.
A NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE:
Sir Roy Strong, C.H., F.R.S.L. (b. 1935) is an English art historian, former museum curator, writer, broadcaster, and garden designer. He was made Director of the National Portrait Gallery aged 32, and at 38 Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, where he stayed until 1987. Sir Roy has published extensively, and is particularly renowned for his knowledge of Elizabethan portraiture, and gardens. In 1971 he married the theatre-designer Julia Trevelyan Oman (1930-2003), and together they created the celebrated gardens at The Laskett, Much Birch, Herefordshire, which Sir Roy has recently gifted to Perennial, the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society.