JOHN JACKSON (1778--1831) rose from the simple home of the tailor, his father, to a high place in the world of art. He was freed from the craft of his father by Lord Mulgrave and Sir George Beaumont. The latter encouraged him to visit London, and allowed him L50 a year and a room in his house while he studied in the Academy. The young painter soon obtained success as a portrait painter, and in 1817 was elected a full member of the Academy. In 1819, he visited Rome with Sir F. Chantrey, and painted for him a portrait of _Canova_. A portrait of _Flaxman_, painted for Lord Dover, is considered Jackson's masterpiece. Leslie, speaking of the subdued richness of his colouring, said that Lawrence never approached him; and Lawrence himself declared that the portrait of Flaxman was "a great achievement of the English school, one of which Van Dyck might have felt proud to own himself the author." Three portraits by Jackson are in the National Gallery--the _Rev. W. H. Carr_, _Sir John Soane_, and _Miss Stephens_, afterwards the late Countess of Essex. Jackson's own portrait, by himself, is in the National Portrait Gallery. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (1775--1851) stands at the head of English landscape painters. It has been said that though others may have equalled or surpassed him in some respects, "none has yet appeared with such versatility of talent." (_Dr. Waagen._) The character of Turner is a mixture of contradictory elements. He possessed a marvellous appreciation of the beautiful in nature, yet lived in dirt and squalor, and dressed in a style between that of a sea-captain and a hackney coachman. The man who worked exquisitely was sometimes harsh and uncouth, though capable of a rude hospitality; disliking the society of some of his fellow-men, he yet loved the company of his friends, and though penurious in some money transactions, left a magnificent bequest to his profession. Turner owed nothing to the beauty or poetic surroundings of his birth-place, which was the house of his father, a barber in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. But as Lord Byron is said to have conjured up his loveliest scenes of Greece whilst walking in Albemarle Street, so the associations of Maiden Lane did not prevent Turner from delineating storm-swept landscapes, and innumerable splendours of nature. The barber was justly proud of his child, who very early displayed his genius, and the first drawings of Turner are said to have been exhibited in his father's shaving-room. In time the boy was colouring prints and washing in the backgrounds of architects' drawings. Dr. Monro, the art patron, extended a helping hand to the young genius of Maiden Lane. "Girtin and I," says Turner, "often walked to Bushey and back, to make drawings for good Dr. Monro at half-a-crown a piece, and the money for our supper when we got home." He did not, of course, start from London.