Jane Jackson, Formerly a Slave

Elihu Vedder returned to the United States in 1860 after spending several years studying and working in Europe. He settled in New York, where in 1862-1863 he enrolled at the school of the National Academy of Design. Beginning in 1863 he regularly sent his work to the institution's annual exhibition. The Civil War ended only a few weeks previous to the opening of the 1865 showing. Among the eight paintings that Vedder exhibited that year was "Jane Jackson, Formerly a Slave." The artist later recalled the circumstances that led to creation of this image: "At [about 1864] I had my studio in the Old Gibson building on Broadway. I used to pass frequently a near corner, where an old negro woman sold peanuts. Her meekly bowed head and a look of patient endurance and resignation touched my heart and we became friends. She had been a slave down South, and had at the time a son, a fine tall fellow, she said, fighting in the Union Army. I finally persuaded her to sit for me and made a drawing of her head and also had her photograph taken. Having been elected [to] the National Academy, according to custom I had to send in a painting to add to the permanent collection, so I sent in this study of her head and called it simply by her name-which was Jane Jackson."