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Gillberg, Jakob
(b Ölme, nr Kristinehamn, 26 May 1724; d Stockholm, 15 Oct 1793. Swedish printmaker and draughtsman. He enrolled at Uppsala Universitet in 1747 but soon became interested in art. He learnt the basics of the engraving technique and studied under Jean Eric Rehn in Stockholm in 1749. He was employed at the Fortifikation in 1751 but continued his studies with Rehn and at the Kungliga Akademi för de Fria Konsterna. In 1751 he executed a series of engravings of Olof Tillaeus, the Dean of Stockholm Cathedral, and his family after the originals by Petter Landsberg (1706–63) and in 1754 portraits of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (reg 1751–71) and Lovisa Ulrica, Queen of Sweden. He received a military scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1755–8) as the protégé of Carl Gustav Tessin and Alexander Roslin, and with their assistance he was appointed military draughtsman in 1757. Laurent Cars taught him engraving in the CRAYON MANNER, a technique of stippling the plate to produce a print similar to a chalk drawing. An example of a work done in this style is Rice Bathhouse (or A Matter of Joy for Hell’s Furies, 1755). He brought back the technique to Sweden in 1758, hoping to be appointed Royal Engraver. He was unsuccessful in this attempt, so instead he founded a private engraving school where princes and wealthy dilettantes could be taught. When the Statliga Gravyrskola (State Engraving School) was founded in 1764, he became a teacher there with Per Gustaf Floding, and he was appointed a professor at the Akademi in 1768. Besides working privately for patrons, he engraved portraits of Gustav III, King of Sweden and his wife Queen Sophia Magdalena in 1773 and their son Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (later Gustav IV Adolf) in 1781. His practice of drawing slowly and meticulously was carried over into his engravings, where small, short strokes together with long parallel lines are evident. He also produced copperplate engravings after his own drawings for the Kronprinsens abc-bok (Crown Prince’s abc book; Stockholm, 1780). In 1792 he was appointed Master of Drawing at the Krigs-akademi (War Academy). His son Jakob Axel Gillberg (1769–1845) was a miniature painter.
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