Thomas Jones (artist)

For other people with the same name, see Thomas Jones (disambiguation).

Giuseppe Marchi, Portrait of Thomas Jones (1768). Oil on canvas, 92.0 × 72.0 cm. National Museum Cardiff

Thomas Jones (26 September 1742 – 29 April 1803) was a Welsh landscape painter. He was a pupil of Richard Wilson and was best known in his lifetime as a painter of Welsh and Italian landscapes in the style of his master. However, Jones's reputation grew in the 20th century when more unconventional works by him, not originally intended for exhibition, came to light. Most notable among these is a series of views of Naples which he painted from 1782 to 1783. By breaking with the conventions of classical landscape painting in favour of direct observation, they look forward to the work of Camille Corot and the Barbizon School in the 19th century.[1] His autobiography, Memoirs of Thomas Jones of Penkerrig, went unpublished until 1951 but is now recognised as an important source of information on the 18th-century art world.[2]

  1. ^ Chilvers, Ian, The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Art and Artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003
  2. ^ Sumner, Ann, "Who was Thomas Jones? The life, death and posthumous reputation of Thomas Jones of Pencerrig".Thomas Jones (1742–1803): An Artist Rediscovered. Ed. Ann Sumner and Greg Smith. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003