Jarves, James Jackson

Jarves, James Jackson (jär`vĭs), 1818–88, American art critic and art collector, b. Boston. He spent some years in Honolulu, where he founded and edited a weekly newspaper, the Polynesia; it became the official organ of the Hawaiian government. Jarves settled in Florence in 1852 and served (1880–82) as U.S. vice consul. His writings include History of the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands (1843), several European travel books, and a number of works on art. Through his writings and exhibitions of his early Italian paintings, he did much to influence the artistic taste of the American public. His collection of paintings is at the Yale School of Fine Arts and at the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Metropolitan Museum has his collection of Venetian glass.

Bibliography

See catalogs of his collections by R. Sturgis, Jr. (1868), O. Sirén (1916), and S. Rubinstein (1917); biography by F. Steegmuller (1951).

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Jarves, James Jackson (1818–88) editor, art critic, collector; born in Boston, Mass. Born to wealth, he was educated privately, traveled extensively, and was the editor of the first weekly newspaper in the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesian (1840–48). He returned to America (1848), but in the 1850s he settled in Florence, Italy, where he collected and wrote about art. He served as the U.S. vice-consul there (1880–82). In addition to his superb collection of early Italian paintings (which he donated to Yale), he collected Venetian glass and textiles among other artifacts.