David Jones, C.H.

Private Collection, U.K., where acquired by the present owner

The sheet is fully laid down to a backing card, with pin holes visible in the bottom left, top centre and two top corners, with a small area of loss and tear to the bottom right corner corresponding with a previous pin hole, not visible in the present frame. There are deckled edges throughout, with a tiny, minor scuff to the extreme right lower edge, again, not visible in the present frame. There is very minor time staining apparent to the extreme edges, not visible in the present mount, with some very minor flecks of possible studio detritus or surface matter apparent elsewhere to the sheet. There is a very tiny diagonal scratch to the upper right quadrant. This excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Housed behind glass in a silver-gilt wooden frame, set within a cream card mount. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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We are grateful to Thomas Dilworth for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

In the 1920s David Jones established himself as a watercolour painter. The training in wood engraving that he had received under Eric Gill undoubtedly influenced his early approach to form, and the graphic quality of Cows in a Landscape can be traced back to his time with the older artist. However, by 1925, Jones’ style had become distinct from Gill’s academicism, with a more intuitive approach to representation. Jones painted many landscapes at this time and many of them featured water in various forms. As a Roman Catholic, water held a spiritual significance and it was also an ideal subject for a handling of paint characterised by movement; as Jones himself remarks:

‘The sea has had quite a big influence, I believe, on my stuff, though it’s not been noted as an ingredient – whereas the hills and flowers etc. have’ (Paul Hills, ‘The Art of David Jones’ exh. cat., David Jones, Tate Gallery, London, 1981, p32.

Here, the swelling sea sets a rhythm that is echoed in the coastline’s dramatic, jagged cliffs. Unlike many of his works, the composition is not organised around the centre of the picture. Rather, the wonderfully detailed cows are dotted amongst rolling hills with the high viewpoint giving a panoramic view of the land. The muted palette is in harmony with the imagery and pictorial space is created by the use of hot and cold colours, rather than by any realistic representation of perspective.

It is likely that Jones painted this work during his first visit to Caldey Island in the spring of 1925. The island, which was then owned by the church, undoubtedly appealed to Jones, given its rich visual and spiritual associations, and he returned to stay there at several other points in his life. While the formal qualities in Cows in a Landscape – the controlled expression of form and the tendency towards flatness – are paramount, the imaginative feeling for representation by which they are conditioned is equally important.