JONES, Thomas

Antiquity was the great theme in British painting in the last decades of the 18th century. Its influence can be traced in two areas particularly - in literature, which often comes close to the macabre, and in the excavations of antique sites, which were followed with intense interest at the time. Thomas Jones’ painting , documenting one of these excavations, gives an example of the latter. It may be the site of the Villa Montalto in Rome, where the Termini railway station now stands. Sites like these attracted the British travelers on the Grand Tour, and soon a fever for collecting developed that dominated elegant taste throughout Europe.

Although Thomas Jones, a Welsh painter, painted some ambitious classical landscapes, he is now best known for his remarkable fresh and unaffected oil sketches done in and around Naples and Rome. They are among the earliest British examples of this kind of open-air sketch and have a directness that looks forward to Corot.

Thomas Jones, the Welsh painter produced this Classical landscape. The figures were painted by John Hamilton Mortimer.

Henry Purcell (c. 1659-1695), the English composer and organist, composed an opera from the story of Dido and Aeneas.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas, Dido’s Farewell