National Museum Wales acquires rare early works by Welsh artist

Two recently discovered, rare oil sketches by Welsh artist Thomas Jones (1742-1803) have entered Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection.

Welsh Landscape with Lead Mines, painted around 1775-6, is an important early representation of Welsh industry–a unique subject among Jones’ surviving paintings. The painting hints at the impact of the dawning industrial age on the mid-Wales landscape.

View on the Wye features a boating scene on the beautiful River Wye, once voted the ‘nation’s favorite river’, and a site of special scientific interest. For centuries the river has attracted attention from artists, writers and tourists, particularly as a focal point of the fashionable picturesque tours. This may be one of Jones’ earliest known studies of the river.

Thomas Jones is today known as a Welsh artist of international importance, but for over a century after his death he was a forgotten figure. His rediscovery as an artist dates from the early 1950s, when his lively Memoirs were published, and many of his oil sketches first appeared on the art market. Today he is recognized as one of the most innovative artists of the eighteenth century, with a deeply personal vision reflected in his oil sketches.

His reputation has been built largely on his small landscape oil sketches of Italy, particularly of buildings in Naples, painted for personal pleasure rather than for display. These paintings are remarkably fresh and vibrant, and have a unique modern appeal which sets them apart from many 18th century landscapes.

His Italian oil sketches have attracted international attention, but it was here in Wales that his love of sketching the landscape in oil took root. Jones, like his master Richard Wilson, had a deep attachment to Wales and often painted the landscape in and around his home county, Radnorshire.