Lot 63: THOMAS JONES

THOMAS JONES 1742 - 1803 THE GROTTO OF EGERIA, NEAR ROME inscribed u.c.: near Rome / Grotto of Ageria 1777 13 June TJ watercolour over pencil with pen and brown ink and gum arabic, held in a British neo-classical frame 27.5 by 40.5 cm.; 10 3/4 by 16 in.

Cardiff, Manchester and London, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2003/2004, no. 83

Captain John Dale;
by descent to Canon J. H. Adams;
Anonymous sale, Phillips London, 3 November 1986, lot 12;
with Martyn Gregory, London

Thomas Jones was born at Trefonnen (Trevonen) in Radnorshire and became a pupil of Richard Wilson (see Villa Borghese drawing earlier in this sale). Jones is now recognised as one of the most idiosyncratic and innovative artists of the eighteenth-century and his richly anecdotal Memoirs are a fascinating window on his life in Wales, London and especially Italy. As this beautifully coloured and exquisitely fine drawing illustrates, Jones was an artist whose approach to subject matter and composition was far ahead of his time. The brilliance of the Italian light which highlights the white walls of the building, the careful application of the delicate watercolour pigment and the meticulous attention to detail are instantly recognisable as the distinctive attributes of Jones's individual style.

Jones spent his early apprenticeship with Richard Wilson, studying drawings such as the one showing the Villa Borghese. Wilson's devotion to Italy undoubtedly inspired Jones's own trip in 1776 and he was to remain there for seven years. Contemporary artists such as John Robert Cozens (see Lake Albano and Vietri and Riato) and Francis Towne (see Lake Albano and Villa Medici) also travelled to Italy at this time. Jones called Cozens 'little Cousins', and they often made sketching trips outside Rome together, staying away for days at a time travelling by donkey or pony and staying in favourite country inns. Jones' Memoirs are filled with vivid accounts of these journeys, and he remarked that; 'This Country... seems formed in a peculiar manner by Nature for the Study of the Landscape-Painter.'

The present work was painted a year after his arrival in Rome in 1777. Jones spent most of the summer painting two important commissions in oil and consequently sketches from this period are rare. According to his Memoirs, Rome was experiencing a heat wave that summer, and he recalled, 'I was kept in a gentle perspiration, sitting in my Shirt & thick linen Drawers without Stockens – with the Windows open - and in this dress I sat down to paint.' It is not surprising that a sketching tour to the cooler air of the campagna beckoned. The so-called grotto of the nympth Egeria – actually part of the remains of the Villa of Herodes Atticus – was a little way off the Via Appia to the south-east of the city, and so it was only a short excursion for the artist. As Greg Smith points out, 'Jones shows no interest in the putative classical associations of the site, concentrating instead on the ruin's more recent pastoral appearance and the vivid effects of the Italian light.'[1]

Canon J.H. Adams who previously owned this lot bequeathed to the Tate Gallery, London two important oil paintings by Jones which he also owned; Naples, 1782 and Rome, 1777.

[1] G. Smith, op.cit, 2003, p. 190