Camellias, ca. 1914

F. Ernest Jackson ARA (1872 - 1945)

RA Collection: Art

This atmospheric monochrome lithograph shows a vase decorated with birds containing camellia flowers, drawn against a dark background. The lithograph was designed and printed by F. Ernest Jackson, who was instrumental in reviving the practice of lithography in Britain in the early twentieth century.

In an article dedicated to Jackson in the February 1924 issue of Drawing and Design, G. M. Ellwood writes of this lithograph that it is 'an example of his [Jackson's] lithographic interpretation of an extremely simple arrangement of flower and vase, caressed into a superb drawing by the almost magical "quality" in the use of chalk and ink on fine-grained stone' (p. 763).

The artist's biographer, J. G. P. Delaney, writes in the catalogue for Jackson's exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in 2000:

'Jackson also did a series of delicate, monochrome lithographs of carnations, of tulips, of camelias [sic] and five of roses ... These are wonderful examples of the use of texture in lithography.' (p. 9)

Camellias has been conserved through a generous donation from the artist's granddaughter, Margaret Bear, 2012.