Welsh Journals

We found that the oil sketches divided into three groups. The first showed easily recognisable views very close to the house at Pencerrig itself such as Pencerrig, 1772 (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 1954P56) which shows the view looking north-east towards Newmead Farm with part of the Carneddau, Pencerrig, 1772 (Tate To8247) which shows the original lake on the estate, Carneddau, from Pencerrig of c.1775 (NMW A 17645) or Field near Pencerrig (NMW A 23200) which was probably painted above the house looking north-west with Gorllwyn in the distance. Com- parison with the portrait of Thomas Jones Senior by Giuseppe Marchi (Pri- vate Collection) shows two small follies in the background above the house which appears to have been painted by Jones himself in collaboration with his friend. One of these is very similar to that shown on the left of this work. In all of these it is striking how little the field patterns have changed since Jones's day although obviously Pencerrig has been subject to con- siderable tree felling. The second group of works shows less identifiable views which concentrate more upon the details of nature which fascinated the young artist such as Sketch in Wales, Pencerrig (Private Collection) and Welsh Landscape with Cornfield (Private Collection). Finally, a third group of works concentrate upon more panoramic views of the rolling hills of Radnorshire and are less easily topographically identifiable. The hills are less easily defined and there is much more emphasis on carefully observed cloud formations in the vast expanse of dominant skies, so very much part of the landscape of Radnorshire. This group includes Pencerrig 1776, (Yale Center for British Art Bi981.25.381), Pencerrig, 1776 (Tate T08243), Land- scape Wales, 1776 (Collection, David Posnett) and the National Museums & Galleries of Wales's own View in Radnorshire. His cloud observations appear to look forward to those of John Constable working nearly a hun- dred years later. These works all mark Jones's personal response to his own native scenery and the recognition that he had fully established this method of painting prior to travelling to Italy in 1776 is significant. He seems to have relaxed by painting such works which were intended for private use, painting close to his home, familiar scenes on his lengthy visits back to Wales from London. This is much in the same way that later in his career he painted exactly the familiar scenes close to his home, that he saw from his roof top terrace only in this case they were not the rolling fields of Radnorshire, often actually owned by his family but the pitted walls, half shuttered windows and lines of washings of the Naples slums. Kate Lowry and her team at the National Museums & Galleries of Wales have made careful technical examinations of many of Jones's oil sketches both those of Radnorshire and those executed in Naples and concluded that the majority have carefully executed, detailed under-drawing. Schol-