Thomas Jones

Elizabetha Francesca Jones, later Mrs John Dale, the artist’s daughter;
Captain John Dale, her husband;
by descent to Canon J.H. Adams;
his sale, London, Sotheby’s, 27 November 1975, lot 86;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 11 April 1991, lot 48, bt. Agnew's;
with Agnew’s, London;
The British Rail Pension Fund;
sale, London, Sotheby's, 15 July 1993, lot 58

Cardiff, National Museum and Gallery, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2003, no. 88;
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2003, no. 88;
London, National Gallery, Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, 2004, no. 88

A. Sumner and G. Smith et al., Thomas Jones (1742-1803): An Artist Rediscovered, Yale 2003, p. 195, no. 88

The composition in this large sheet remains strong and easily readable. As often happens with watercolours created in Italy at this time, some of the pigments have changed hue somewhat. In this work, some, but not all, of the green as faded in the trees and foliage. There is therefore an increased sense of blue throughout. The sheet remains in good, clean condition and for its age this work has survived well.
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Thomas Jones began this watercolour on the 15^th November 1777 while on a sketching trip to Tivoli. He had been living in Rome since the previous November and had on several occasions journeyed outside the Eternal City. These exploratory expeditions were often conducted in the company of friends and involved being away for days at a time. Before travelling to Italy, Jones had trained under Richard Wilson, whose studio was overflowing with paintings and drawings connected with his own six years in Rome during the 1750s. In his Memoirs, Jones reveals his great excitement upon discovering the Italian landscape for himself. He wrote that he could ‘not help observing with what new and uncommon sensation I was filled on my first traversing this beautiful and picturesque country – every scene seemed anticipated in some dream – it appeared [like a] magick [sic] land.’¹

In 1777 Jones spent six days in Tivoli and he was away from Rome between the 9^th and 16^th November. It appears to have been a sociable excursion, as he travelled by carriage with Mr Justice Welsh, his daughter and ‘old Nulty the antiquarian.’² He then met up with two architects, his old friend Thomas Hardwick and an Italian called Signor Giacomo.

Although it was cold in the early mornings and evenings, during the day the weather was ‘very warm and fine’ and he was able to explore many of the sites for which Tivoli was famed.³ On the 10^th November he went to the Villa D’Este, the Grotto of Neptune and Villa Adrian. On the 11^th and 12^th he returned to Villa Adrian and on the remaining two days he sketched the celebrated waterfalls, the acqueduct and explored the hills above the town. Although he felt his time at Tivoli had been well spent, upon his return to Rome, he discovered that there are been a robbery at his lodgings and that much of his ‘linen, all [his] silk stockings and a purse with 20 Louid’ors’ had been stolen.⁴

As with many of Jones’ drawings, upon his death in 1803, the present work was left to his second daughter Elizabetha Francesca. She married Captain John Dale in whose family the work was to remain until 1975.  

1. A. Sumner and G. Smith et al., op. cit., p. 53
2. F. Hawcroft, Travels in Italy, 1776-1783, Manchester, 1988, p. 48
3. T. Jones, 'The Memoirs of Thomas Jones', Walpole Society, vol. XXXII, p. 64
4. Ibid., p. 67