Everett Gee Jackson (1900–1995)

EVERETT GEE JACKSON (1900–1995)
Girl with Acacia Tree, 1931
Oil on canvas, 27 x 23 in. 
Signed and dated (at lower left): Everett Gee Jackson / 31

EXHIBITED: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, October 13–November 19, 2016, Everett Gee Jackson, 1900–1995: Modernism without Apologies, pp. 4 illus. in color, 23 no. 10

EX COLL.: the artist; to his estate, and by descent in the family, until 1996; to private collection, until the present

In the early 1930s, Jackson often painted single-figure paintings such as Girl with Acacia Tree. Though the female figure here is likely to have been modeled on Jackson’s wife, Eileen, the painting is not intended to be a portrait. Girl with Acacia Tree especially echoes Eileen Jackson’s 1927 description of her husband’s work. “The mass, not the line plane, interests him. Before other elements his work has this ‘weight dimension.’” Jackson’s palette here is limited and muted, the paint applied thickly and roughly on the canvas, giving it a dry affect similar to a fresco mural.