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George Jones No Photo Available Jones was the leading painter of battles in the first half of the nineteenth century exhibiting his first such picture, Waterloo (Royal Military Hospital) at the British Institution in 1816, and his last, a Sketch of the Conquest and Destruction of Madgala in 1869, the year of his death. The artist himself served for a short period in the Staffordshire Militia and attained a captaincy in the Royal Montgomeryshire Militia in 1812. Whether he served in Spain is open to question but it appears that he was with the army of occupation after Waterloo in 1815. This experience no doubt put him in good stead to paint the numerous panoramic scenes of the great battle. Indeed, he exhibited five paintings of Waterloo at the Royal Academy and six at the British Institution. The events of the Peninsula were also of interest to Jones who was an acquaintance of Lieut General Paul Anderson, the companion to Sir John Moore. It was Anderson who commissioned the artist to paint the burial scene of Moore (Private Collection), and two companion pieces may have been from the same commission. His Battle of Victoria (Royal Collection) may have been commissioned by George IV. In 1829, the artist exhibited the Battle of Borodino (Tate Gallery). His friendship with Sir Charles Napier and his brother, William, led to several canvases portraying battles of the Scinde War, often with information provided by the General. These were Meanee (The Cheshire Regiment), Hyderabad (Royal Academy of Arts), Trukkee (Institue of Directors), Dubba, and Emaum Ghur. The Crimean War provided Jones with subjects for two pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855, The Battle of Alma (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) and Balaclava - conflict at the Guns (Birmingham City Art Gallery). Both were oil sketches for paintings but it appears that these pictures were never painted. Jones also exhibited a sketch entitled The Battle of Inkerman. Similarly, the Indian Mutiny gave Jones further material for canvases, the result being two large pictures, Cawnpore: The Passage of the Ganges and the Relief of Lucknow (both Tate Gallery; small versions at Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum). Both pictures celebrated Sir Colin Campbell who is prominent in each scene. While Jones's early reputation rested on such battle paintings, his work fell out of favour towards the end of his life and in many cases, his pictures remained unsold at his death. His early style of panoramic paintings was regarded as archaic by the time of the Crimean War but he continued to produce them in the hope of attracting patronage. |
George Jones Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings |
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