[An artist's Journey to XVIII Century Italy. Memoirs of Thomas Jones]. Edited by Anna Ottani Cavina

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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Viaggio d'artista nell'Italia del Settecento. Il diario di Thomas Jones

[An Artist’s Journey to XVIII Century Italy. Memoirs of Thomas Jones]
Edited by Anna Ottani Cavina

Milan, Mondadori Electa, 2003

Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro

Giuseppe Marchi, Portrait of Thomas Jones, 1768, Cardiff, National Museum and Galleries of Wales
Source: Wikimedia Commons

"The foregoing Journal is taken, with some Circumstances occasionally enlarged upon, from short hints and Memoranda of a Diary, which for many years I had been in the habit of keeping – And as the original Intention of making the above Extracts was only for the Amusement of vacant hours in my present Retirement, and the Perusal of a Few, whom the ties of Consanguinnity [sic], or private Friendship might interest in my little Concerns, I was under no temptation of deviating from Truth" (p. 225) [1]. So wrote the Welsh painter Thomas Jones (1742-1803) at the end of his journal. I wanted to start right from here since, in some respects, the Italian edition I am reviewing herewith tends to mislead the terms of the issue. Jones' writings are not the memoirs of a journey, but a journal, which started from the author's first artistic experiences (including the years of English education) and finished with the conclusion of the Italian experience in 1783. Moreover, Jones did not make a tour to Italy, but he lived there for eight years, from 1775 to the end of 1783. The Italian experience was in turn divided into two parts: the first years (until May 1780) spent in Rome; the last ones in Naples. Unfortunately, the overall confusion generated by an ill-chosen title is not the only issue to be discussed in a richly illustrated edition. Indeed, it was published with many ambitions, following the exhibition that led to the discovery of the painter in Italy, held in Mantua at the end 2001. Nevertheless, while the edition is intentionally elegant, it is equally confusing and uncomfortable in its material fruition.

As the painter himself wrote, the notes written by Jones were then revised in subsequent years (as proven by internal evidence, at least between 1794 and 1798), as part of a project fundamentally aimed at the painter himself and his relatives, without any desire to publish them. It is a journey, we said, and not an autobiography. Often annotations simply recorded facts and events, and, to be honest, they do not reveal much of his personality. While the revised journal was intended for the perusal of relatives, it should be mentioned, for example, that the appearance of Jones's future wife (Maria Moncke), known in Rome where the artist had two daughters, is described in the journal as follows: "Fortunately meeting with a person, acquainted with the Language and Manners of England, whom I persuaded to undertake the direction of my domestic affairs" (p.157) [2]. Four years later, it turned out that the two had got together two little girls.

But it is not so much the private aspect of Jones that we are missing. What we feel terribly absent is the explanation of his poetry. Since there is no doubt: during his Neapolitan stay, Jones painted absolutely extraordinary oils on paper and watercolours that were so modern to come close to abstraction; true fragments (says Anna Ottani Cavina) of a city painted hundreds of times, but never in that way; of a place and at the same time a ‘non-place’, which is totally unknown to us. Well, how and why the artist came to produce this kind of picture, it is not explained to us. We have to be content with what the diary tells us: Jones was cut off from the circuit of the great Roman commands, in the hands of a few art dealers with few scruples, whom he had managed to antagonise all. He tried to break this situation by moving to Naples. This attempt was however not effective and led him to the decision to paint free from constraints, without any expectation of success, for the only taste of doing so.

But let us now go back to the course of events.

Thomas Jones, Landscape with View on the River Wye, about 1772, Denver Art Museum
Source: http://www.bergercollection.org/index.php?id=5&artwork_id=55

Thomas Jones, An Imaginary Italiante Landscape with Classical Figures and a Waterfall, about 1773, Yale Center for British Art
Source: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/EAEoWmaxS9gPCQ

London

Thomas Jones was the son of a wealthy Welsh family and, after failing a religious career, decided to dedicate himself to art and, in particular, landscaping. He moved to London, and became a pupil of Richard Wilson, probably the best-known English landscapist of the time, whose art was inspired by a tranquil and reassuring atelier landscaping. During those years in the English capital, the diary points out some interesting aspects, both on a public and personal level: Jones lived in a period of struggles between factions of painters, competing for the control of artistic institutions. The Society of Artists, of which Jones was part, was controlled by 24 directors (of course the most affirmed artists) who decided which paintings to admit to the exhibitions, reserving privileges and prestigious assignments for themselves. Because of this, an ‘opposition party’ was created, de facto leading to the division of the Society into two separate entities and ultimately to the creation of a third structure, the Royal Academy, founded in 1768 under the auspices of King George III. In this series of diatribes, Jones seems to have taken a somewhat low profile position (I dare to say almost accidentally). Instead, there is a strong theme emerging throughout the diary, which is that of melancholy. We do not know to what extent this aspect was a subsequent re-elaboration of the journal or a real one: it is certain that Jones perceived that he was "born out of the due Time". Difficult to say whether it was a real depression; certainly, his fundamental insecurity confined him to landscape painting. Frustrations were also not lacking. Jones felt to be gifted for landscape painting, but not to live up to figure painting: every time there was a possibility of inserting figures into his canvases, he did not feel secure about his own way of painting and worked together with friends and colleagues. In a completely symmetric way, it happened that he was asked by colleagues to paint backdrops for their history pictures. It was nothing unusual, of course, but the clear symptom that Jones did not feel to master art as a whole. About the London years, it is worth pointing out two other possibly marginal, but still significant aspects. First, the incipient role of chemistry for the use of pigments. He pencilled in 1770 that a course was held by a chemist ("a certain Dr. Aussiter") at the Maiden Lane Academy, referring to the nature of the pigments. We are at the beginning of a process that will lead in the next century to the enquiries by Eastlake and Merrifield. Second, the substantial misogyny of the artist (a common element of his contemporary society). By devoting himself to landscaping and working above all with watercolours, Jones actually covered an area that, in the conventions of English painting of that time, was also open to women because it is not felt very intensive from an intellectual point of view (this was indeed the official reason that was given). In 1768, he made some crayon pictures. “A pair which were put into the Exhibition, procured applications from a number of Governesses to know my terms of teaching ‘as they were the most beautiful little pictures they had ever beheld’ – but with more Pride than Policy perhaps, I rejected all proposals of degrading myself into a drawing-master at boarding Schools" (p. 49) [3]. Better to continue living at a wrong time, than to teach in a school where most probably the governesses were predominantly, if not only, teaching to female students.

Rome

The journey to Rome was almost compulsory for any artist with a minimum of ambition in those days’ Britain. The stay in Rome occupies the largest number of pages in the journal. The aspect that personally strikes me most is the substantial isolation of the English community, not so much from the Italian society, but from all the other groups of foreign artists. Obviously, the language barrier was just one of the factors. The British had their meeting point at the Caffè degli Inglesi, close to Piazza di Spagna, which was not just a venue for the evening, nor only an occasion to organize countless excursions in the suburbs ("Not having done it before I can not help in this place mentioning – with what strange and pleasing Sensations I was struck on my first traversing this beautiful and picturesque Country – Every Scene almost, seemed, for the Moment, anticipated in Some Dream – It appeared Magic land – In fact, I had seen and Copyed so many Studies of that great Artist Mr Richard Wilson, which he had made here, and was so familiarized with, & enamoured of Italian forms, that I enjoyed pleasures unfelt by my Companions "- see p. 109 [4]). The Caffè degli Inglesi was above all the place where to organize strategies, clutches and alliances between fellow countrymen for the management of wealthy local commissions or the Grand Tourists visiting the city. Here is precisely the most important aspect of the journal: it quotes dozens and dozens of artists, antiquarians, collectors who were offering their services to English cultivated persons in Rome. It should be said that the volume offers us comprehensive information about nearly all of the mentioned people, thanks to the rich list of notes (over 400). We should thank here Eleonora Onghi for those on the English years and Emilia Calbi for those on the Italian stay (cf. p. 28). Just at the end of the period spent in Rome, Jones made more clear what was actually already evident by reading the previous pages. Thomas Jenkins and James Byres 'controlled' the English artists present in Rome, not only in terms of assignments, but also providing quasi-financing services. Both of them were art dealers, living in Rome for decades. They were accredited by nobility and local cardinals (Jenkins was an unofficial British ambassador to the Holy See), both influencing collectors' choices. "Each of these Gentlemen had his Party among the Artists, and it was customary for every one to present a Specimen of his Abilities to his Protector, for which he received in return an Antique Ring or a few Sechins – These Specimens were hung up in their respective Rooms of Audience for the inspection of the Cavaliers who came – Each Party likewise by established Custom, dined with its respective Patron on Christmas Day"(p. 164) [5]. Compared to a situation of this kind, Jones was soon caught between the loyalty to one of the two factions and the innate propensity to be perhaps not so much a rebel, but certainly an outsider. A Christmas dinner he held at his private home marked the end of every possibility of belonging to either fraction and pushed him to Naples in the spring of 1780 (he had already been there for two months between 1778 and 1779).

Thomas Jones, A Wall in Naples, oil on paper, 11,4 x 16 cm, 1782, London, National Gallery
Source: www.spamula.net

Thomas Jones, The Cappella nuova outside the Porta di Chiaia, oil on paper, 20 x 23,2 cm., 1782, London, Tate Gallery
Source: http://www.tate.org.uk

Naples

The things in Naples did not improve. In fact, Jenkins and Byres also had their emissaries in the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Welsh artist experienced a sort of ostracism from his own national community. Jones sought the protection of Sir William Hamilton, English ambassador to the Bourbons, but got it only after two years, and in a very lukewarm manner. It is in this context, or in the context of a personal return to the private, that the painter produced his urban landscapes, extraordinary images of small dimensions (usually about 20 x 30) that surely he produced for his personal delight only from the terrace of his home: “Looking upon my self as deserted by my Countrymen – the depression of my Spirits was such, that I endeavoured avoiding as much as possible those places where I was most likely to meet them – The greater part of my Excursions abroad were mournful and Solitary – The various picturesque Scenes of Nature had still their Charms, and I made Studies of them with the same Ardour as ever – it was the immediate pleasure of the Moment – not from any Expectation of a future pecuniary Recompence, for the feeble glimmering hopes that remained of that sort were dying fast away" (p. 168) [6]. The journal tells us nothing more about it. Of course, if one compares the walls of the palaces of a Naples never seen so far in this way and the (few) large-scale oils executed during his Italian stay, the contrast is shrill. Jones left Naples with his family and returned to England with an adventurous sea voyage at the end of 1803. After a few years in London, he definitively abandoned his artistic activity and returned to live in Wales, managing the property he had received from parents and brothers, and living in a certain degree of prosperity. Everyone forgot about him until his rediscovery since the 1950s.

Thomas Jones, Houses in Naples,  oil on paper, 14,2 x 21,6 cm., 1782, Cardiff, National Museums and Galleries of Wales
Source; http://www.pinsdaddy.com/

Thomas Jones, Buildings on a Cliff Top, oil on paper, 28,7 x 38,7 cm., London, Tate Gallery
Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/

The manuscript

The Memoirs of Thomas Jones are kept today in Cardiff, at the National Library of Wales (https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm), where they only recently arrived thanks to a donation by the heirs of the painter. They were first published by Paul Oppé on behalf of Walpole Society in 1951 (Volume 32, 1946-48). The first French edition was published in 2001. This is the first (and only one) Italian translation.

NOTES

 [1] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1783)

[2] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1779)

[3] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1763-1759)

[4] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1777)

[5] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1780)

[6] English original at https://www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig/thjones_s_pennodau.htm (1780)