Lot 16: Thomas Jones (1743-1803)

Near Capodimonte, Naples
signed 'Thos. Jones.' and inscribed 'near Capo di Monte NAPLES.' (lower right)
pencil and oil on paper laid on canvas
14 x 19 1/2 in. (35.6 x 49.5 cm.)

London, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood, Thomas Jones Exhibition, 1970, no.56.
Cardiff, National Museum & Gallery, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, London, National Gallery, Thomas Jones: An Artist Rediscovered, May 2003 - 15 February 2004, no. 124.

By descent in the family of the sitter until 1982 when given by Jane Evan-Thomas to the current owner.

In this beautiful Neapolitan composition, Jones successfully contrasts a shadowed hill-side punctured with mysterious cave openings with a warm and sunlit valley. Jones painted a number of small scale oil sketches while he was in Italy and in this instance, uses the texture and colour of the underlying paper to enhance the luminosity and warm tones of his landscape, and applied thin layers of oil paint to create richness and depth.

Jones left for the continent in October of 1776 and arrived in Rome the following month where he acquired the patronage of a few significant connoisseurs, including that of Frederick Augustus Hervey (1730-1803), the 4th Earl Bishop of Derry. He first visited Naples and its environs in September of 1778, but had returned to Rome by the beginning of the following year. However, the opportunities of the Neapolitan landscape appealed to Jones and indeed, most of the commisssioned pictures that he was working on following his return to Rome were Neapolitan views, and he returned to Naples in the spring of 1780 where he was to remain until his return to England in August 1783.

Although this picture had previously been thought to be part of a group of views that Jones had painted in the spring of 1781 on the road to Santa Maria dei Monti, Greg Smith, in his catalogue entry for this picture (Thomas Jones. An artist rediscovered, 2003, London and New Haven, p. 234) suggests that it is more probably a view taken from the area of San Gennaro, near Capodimonte.

North of Naples, in the hills above the city, the area of Capodimonte was originally created as a hunting park for King Carlo III. Overlooking the parkland is the Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte, a scarlet palace begun in 1738 and now home to the Farnese collection of Renaissance art, the Bourbon collection and a number of significant Neapolitan works. The area of San Gennaro, located on the hills immediately beneath Capodimonte, is dotted with caves and grottoes including the second century catacombs, where the body of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, was housed in the fifth century.

In July of 1782, Jones records his pleasure in discovering
'a picturesque road which lay behind the Hospital of S. Gennaro - On each side of which were immense Masses of Tuffa, finely fringed with Shrubs of various hues and Shades, intermixed with large overgrown Alloes and Indian figs' (A.P. Oppée, ed. 'Memoirs of Thomas Jones', Walpole Society, XXXII, 1946-1948, p.113). He was particularly struck by the grottoes and caves in this area and found the atmosphere enhanced by the echoes of the stonemasons within the hills,
'In these Rocks were large Grottoes or Caverns, from whence Stones for the purpose of building were excavated, and whose Apertures were decorated with festoons of the different creeping plants waving to and fro in the Air - What added much to the Solemnity of the Scene were the hollow reverberations of Sound, proceeding from the Strokes of the Hammers and other Instruments of the Workmen below...' (op. cit).

Jones with his friend and fellow artist, Giovanni Battista Lusieri (c. 1755-1821), 'spent a great part of our time together in such kind of Scenery, making studies from Nature (p.113)', and his views of the area, for example in the richly worked watercolour In the Suburbs of Naples (fig. 2; 1782, National Musuems and Galleries of Wales) show a fascination with the rich vegetation flanking the hilly passes, and the contrasting dark voids, 'Grottoes or Caverns'.

Although Near Capodimonte, Naples is drawn on a similar size sheet of paper to the other known views of the area, it is unusual within this proposed group, as it is worked in oils. Jones painted many small scale oil sketches on paper in situ during this period, for example The Grotto at Posillipo (1782, National Gallery, London, on loan from the Gere Collection) and The Hill of Vomero and the Dome of S. Caterina, Naples (1782, Birmingham Musuems and Art Gallery). However, as the only view of that area worked in oils on paper, this picture may have been painted at a later date, possibly from a lost drawing.

Since the picture remained in the hands of Jones's family, it is likely that it was painted for his own pleasure and enjoyment. It was given by Jones's descendant Jane Evan-Thomas to the current owner in 1982.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

The frame for this picture has been kindly lent by Arnold Wiggins & Sons for the duration of the view and is available for purchase following the sale. It is an English circa 1735 carved and gilded frame with leaf sight moulding, a sanded frieze, raking acanthus leaf knull and architectural leaf back moulding. Please contact a member of the department for further details.