Welsh Journals

of the sketches at their shop the other day. Among them were several views in Radnorshire and one of these appears to me so good that I should like to get it for our collection. We have five paintings by Jones, and a sketch-book of his: but only views of Italy and none of Wales. Colnaghi's have sent here the sketch I particularly like. They would accept a reduced price of £ 8.00 for it from the museum; but they would also consider letting us have it in part-exchange for one of the newly acquired Neapolitan sketches. I would like to effect this exchange.15 Once permission to effect the exchange was made Charles wrote to Byam Shaw at Colnaghi's, 'We are glad to have the Neapolitan scenes, but hardly need all three of them. On the other hand we should like to acquire your Radnorshire scene'.16 The work to which Rollo Charles refers is View in Radnorshire (NMW A 86) (Fig. 3). Consequently on 23 September the Bay of Naples and the Mole Lighthouse (now Tate Britain Oppé Collection T08246) was sent to London by registered post and exchanged for the View in Radnorshire. It is interesting to note that at this stage, the Italian and Welsh views appear to have been appreciated with equal enthusiasm, al- though Byam Shaw notes on receipt of the Mole Lighthouse that 'the Ital- ian views seem rather more generally saleable than the others'. His hunch, of course, proved correct and art historians have since the first emergence of these on the art market, very much concentrated upon the beautiful group of oil sketches which Jones produced in Naples in the early 1780s. One of the great revelations of the Cardiff exhibition was however the early Welsh oil sketches painted in 1772 and 1775-6, which hung beautifully together in an early section of the exhibition. Prior to the bicentenary exhibition little research had been carried out on the oil sketches. These were painted when Jones was a young artist making his name in London with major subject paintings and retreating periodically to Radnorshire to maintain family ties and respond to his na- tive landscape. Many were entitled Pencerrig and yet they clearly showed different views in and around the estate itself. The challenge of the Jones Project team was to try to identify some of the topographical views and in this I was ably assisted by Richard Bevins of the Department of Geology at the National Museums & Galleries of Wales and by Kevin Thomas of the Department of Photography.17 We also received much local assistance from those who live in Radnorshire and who are particularly familiar with the landscape. The staff of the Pencerrig Gardens Hotel were very helpful and a number of field trips organised by Richard and myself used the hotel as a base.