David Jones

The Redfern Gallery, London
Acquired by Wilfrid A. Evill in 1941 for £26.5.0, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost in 1963

France and Czechoslovakia, British Council, 1945 (details untraced);
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Catalogue of Part of a Collection of Oil Paintings, Water Colours, Drawings and Sculpture Belonging to W. A. Evill, Esq., December 1947 - February 1948, cat. no.67 (as Eric Gill's House);
London, The Tate Gallery, Contemporary Art Society, The Private Collector, 23rd March - 23rd April 1950, cat. no.129;
Brighton, Brighton Art Galley, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, June - August 1965, cat. no.78 (as Eric Gill's Cottage);
London, The Tate Gallery, David Jones, 21st July - 6th September 1981, cat. no.61, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p.18.

The following condition report has been compiled by Jane McAusland FIIC, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper: Support The artist has used a sheet of wove paper with a slightly laid look to the surface, watermarked J WHATMAN 1928. At present this drawing is attached with brown tapes on the verso to an over-lay mount. There are some artist pinholes and an added corner lower left, and a little staining on the verso. Otherwise the condition of the paper is good. Medium The watercolour appears to be in a good condition and it is very fresh. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. For enquiries about the present work please contact the department on +44 (0)20 7293 6424.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'The colour of Bonnard is wedded to the linearity of the British tradition with new vitality and assurance. The title reveals Jones' love of movement, change, transmogrification.' (Dr Paul Hills, David Jones, The Tate Gallery, London, exh.cat., 1981, pp.90-1)

The present work depicts Eric Gill's farmhouse in Piggots, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, to which Gill moved in 1928. Jones depicted the scene on several occasions, and July Change is the earliest of these compositions. Interestingly, in related works such as Cattle Home (Sold in these rooms, 1^st December 1999, lot 35), Curtained Outlook (British Council Collection), and Briar Cup (Helen Sutherland Collection), Jones typically painted seated from the window looking out onto Gill's farmyard below. July Change places the viewer at the end of the garden path and we are offered a rare glimpse of the quaint cottage itself, with stables visible in the distance.

In many ways, Jones' mature artistic style was slow to develop. Having attended art classes at the Camberwell School, his studies were disrupted by the First World War. Following a personal crisis and a conversion to Catholicism, Jones destroyed all of his early works that were in his possession in the mid-1920s. The rest of his career would be dominated by phases of intense out-put, followed by long stretches of inactivity, at which point he would devote himself to his writings.

Between 1928 and 1932 Jones had one of his most fruitful periods of production.  Many years later, Jones reflected, 'to my mind my happiest and best work was just prior to my illness, in 1932' (see René Hague (ed.), Dai Greatcoat: A Self-Portrait of David Jones in his Letters, London, 1980), and it was at this time that he made both his finest prints and also established his style and reputation as a watercolour painter. He developed his characteristic method of layering colours, creating an animated surface, and experimented with pictorial space and compositional structure, contrasting the static and the dynamic, the near and far, the horizontal and the vertical. His scenes are often concerned with pattern-making: here the outlines of trees and vegetation, the contours of path and plots are strong and schematic, and colour is reduced to a predominance of blues and yellows. There is a rhythmic play of line and formal sophistication in Jones work which was ideally suited to the medium of watercolour - he was far more at home with an expanse of clean white paper than when working in oils.