David Jones: Vision and Memory 24 October 2015 - 21 February 2016 Exhibition Notes : Learning Through Art Designed to support teachers and students as they explore the exhibition Looking Together: Ideas on how to engage with art during your visit to Pallant House Gallery Exhibition Overview: An introduction to the current exhibition About the Artist: A brief biography of the artist Pre-visit Activities: Useful links and pre-visit ideas Key Themes: An introduction to each section Works in Focus: Discussion questions to facilitate open-ended exploration References and Connections: Artists and art historical terms mentioned in the text • • • • • • •
Transcript
David Jones: Vision and Memory24 October 2015 - 21 February 2016
Exhibition Notes : Learning Through ArtDesigned to support teachers and students as they explore the exhibition
Looking Together: Ideas on how to engage with art during your visit to Pallant House Gallery
Exhibition Overview: An introduction to the current exhibition
About the Artist: A brief biography of the artist
Pre-visit Activities: Useful links and pre-visit ideas
Key Themes: An introduction to each section
Works in Focus: Discussion questions to facilitate open-ended exploration
References and Connections: Artists and art historical terms mentioned in the text
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Looking TogetherThese notes are aimed to help you and your students think in terms of shapes, colours and space, to develop the skills and techniques to focus on an object, identify its essential elements and to find meaning and build a visual vocabulary.
Try to keep group numbers to a minimum so everyone can see the work and have time to participate in the discussion.
Use this line of questioning when looking at the Works in Focus.
ObservationApproach the work and take a closer look. Encourage your students to take a “visual inventory” of the art work, focusing on it and noticing details.
Take the time to look.DescriptionDescribe the work as a group to establish an understanding of what is being seen.
It is useful to start by simply listing what everyone sees.Remember to explore the formal properties of the work, as well as naming recognizable objects, for example consider:
Line and Shape as well as Colour and Composition
Material and Technique
Subject matter
This process allows a wide range of participation and will benefit future interpretation.
Once you feel that the group has thoroughly described the work, summarize all the elements mentioned and point out any important details that have been missed.
What lines and shapes do you see in
this drawing?
By looking closely at this painting, can you describe
the brushstrokes?
Where is the figure in relation to
the building?
Interpretation Interpretation is about assigning meaning to various elements of the work and thinking about its overall significance. Encourage breadth and variety, and use ideas generated to expand the conversation.
Ask questions that prompt your students to reflect on what is not clearly visible in the work but perhaps merely suggested.
Time and Place, Narrative and Mood
Artist’s Intention and Biographical Information
Historical and Social Context
Balance your questions by sharing some of the interesting facts in these notes, make connections and encourage further discussion.
Connection Encourage your students to connect the work to their life experiences as well as wider cultural and social events.
Personal Life Experience and Emotional Effect
Personal Opinion
Cultural Changes and World Events
Artwork by different artists
What is implied by the way these two figures are interacting?
What overall mood is conveyed in this
photograph?
How does this painting make you feel?
Do you like this painting?
How does this drawing of a landscape compare
to the painting next to it that depicts the
same scene?
SummaryToward the end of the discussion of each work, bring together the various threads of conversation, summarizing and synthesizing the points you have talked about.
Why do you think the artist used these found
objects together to create this sculpture?
This exhibition offers the opportunity to reconsider the work of David Jones.
Draughtsman, engraver, painter and poet, Jones expressed his unique and personal artistic vision through a range of media. His skill as a draughtsman can be clearly seen in his early, exquisitely designed and carved wood engravings and bold linear copper engravings. Produced as illustrations, they reveal Jones’ understanding of the power of the combined word and image. This is an aspect of his work which he developed later in his career through his painted inscriptions, which are also included in the exhibition.
As a painter he produced beautifully intricate paintings; mainly watercolours with gouache, pencil and chalk. Often informed by Jones’ eclectic reading of literary, historical and religious texts, he was always concerned with the material aspect of painting. Colour, form and brushstroke are employed for their own individual qualities, to create abstract patterns of movement and spatial relationships.
Although Jones saw himself as primarily a visual artist, from the late 1920s he also expressed his ideas through poetry. Most notably, he published two long narrative poems In Parenthesis, in 1937 and The Anathemata in 1952.
The work included in this exhibition charts the distinctive phases in Jones’ artistic life and the recurrent themes which preoccupied him for over forty years. Pencil sketches drawn during the First World War offer an early glimpse of subject matter that Jones was drawn to; the common solider, or warrior, drawings of animals, in this case rats, and the sacred and historical landscape. His time at Ditchling, living with Eric Gill and his family as part of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, was an important formative period. During this time he developed his ideas on the role of the artist and his place in society, as well as learning the technical skill of wood engraving. The intricate wood engravings commissioned to illustrate Gulliver’s Travels, The Book of Jonah and The Chester Play of the Deluge and the copper engravings for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
show Jones’ ability to balance form and content, which were for him the two elements central to all art.
This exhibition also presents a number of Jones’ most important paintings; mainly watercolours, but also a few of the rare oil paintings, including a sensitive self-portrait. Between 1926 and 1932 Jones painted landscapes; seascapes, Sandy Cove, Caldy,1927as well as the occasional portrait, Lady Prudence Pelham, 1930. Within these works Jones sought to address the material as well as the spiritual world.
‘What concerns him is the universal thing showing through the particular thing, and as a painter it is this showing through that he endeavours to capture’.1[Eric Gill, 1930]
The later paintings included in the exhibition include two complex mythologies in pencil, ink and watercolour paintings, as well as one of his last ever paintings from 1962. They seem to take as their starting point a scene from a myth or legend. However, they cannot be read as straightforward illustrations. Rather they are a coming together of the many, historical, literary and religious beliefs that informed Jones’ thinking throughout his life. This confluence of meanings within all of Jones’ work was qualified in his own words.
‘I should like to make plain that none of this symbolism is meant to be at all rigid, but very fluid - I merely write down a few of the mixed ideas that got into this picture...So many confluent ideas are involved in a single image.’ 2
The exhibition has been curated by Paul Hills and Ariane Bankes, authors of The Art of David Jones: Vision and Memory, published by Lund Humphries, which will accompany the exhibition.
Words which are underlined refer to the References and Connection section at the end of these notes.
Exhibition Overview
About the Artist
Walter David Jones (1895 - 1974)
Born in Brockley, Kent in 1895 he was the third child of James and Alice Jones. From an
early age he expressed a desire to be an artist and so at the age of 14 he attended Camberwell School of Art. With the outbreak of the First World War Jones decided to sign up and in January 1915 he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a private. In the December he was deployed to France. In 1916 he was badly wounded in an assault on Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme and invalided home for a while. On return he was nominated to mapmaking and field survey work, which kept him largely away from the front line and gave him opportunity to draw. He saw action at Ypres and Passchendaele and was finally invalided out with an attack of trench fever in February 1918.
Jones’ experience of the war was to find direct expression in his long narrative poem In Parenthesis, which he started to write in 1928. His attempt to understand the brutality and slaughter of his fellow man, as well as the destruction of the landscape was to inform much of his thinking and resonate in much of his work. His second major poem The Anathemata was published in 1952.
In 1919 Jones returned to his art education and enrolled at the Westminster School of Art. Walter Sickert had been a former tutor there and Jones thought him the ‘best English painter since Turner’. He was also inspired by his tutor Bernard Meninsky, whose modernism and interest in the work of Cézanne and Picasso was framed by his passion for the painters of the Italian Renaissance. This reaching across the divide between contemporary and historical can be seen in Jones’ own approach to visual as well as literary interests.
Whilst in France Jones was exploring his interest in Roman Catholicism, though having been raised an Anglican. He had been deeply moved
by glimpsing a Mass being held, for a ‘few huddled figures in khaki’, by candlelight in a small cowshed. He soon regularly attended Mass at Westminster Cathedral, which was just round the corner from his art school. In September 1921 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. In January 1921 he was invited by his friend Father John O’Connor to visit Eric Gill at Ditchling Common. Here he found a place to develop as an artist, and he moved to Ditchling in December 1921 and stayed until 1924. He also became engaged to Eric Gill’s daughter, Petra.
In 1924 Jones returned to London and produced a series of line-block illustrations for The Town Child’s Alphabet. Each letter is illustrated by a little, often comic scene, such as T is for Taxi-Man. In 1925 he was elected to the Society of Wood Engravers. His skill as a wood-engraver can be seen in the three commissions he received from the Golden Cockerel Press; Gulliver’s Travels in 1925, The Book of Jonah
David Jones in 1927, reproduced from the frontispiece of Douglas Cleverdon, The Engravings of David Jones, Clover Hill Editions, London, 1981
in 1926 and The Chester Play of the Deluge in 1927. In 1929 he was commissioned to illustrate The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; this time he produced a series of copper-engravings.
In August of 1924 Eric Gill and his family had moved to a former monastery at Capel-y-ffin, which lies in the valley of the Honduu on the borders with Wales and England. From here Jones also visited and spent time working at the Benedictine monastery on Caldy Island, Pembrokeshire. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s he painted continuously, wherever he happened to be staying, whether in France in 1928, at Rock Hall, the Northumbrian home of his patron Helen Sutherland, or at his parents’ holiday home at Portslade, near Brighton.
When back in London he started to develop a wider circle of artists and intellectuals. Through his friendship with H. S. Ede (known as Jim Ede), he met Winifred and Ben Nicholson, who later nominated Jones to the Seven & Five Society in 1928. He resigned in 1936 when there was a move towards greater abstraction within the society In 1932 he suffered the first of two nervous breakdowns, the second in 1946. Unable to work for many years, Jones returned to painting in late 1936. With the outbreak of the Second World War he moved back to London in 1940.
During 1940-41 he produced four paintings which dealt with the rituals of war and the mythology of warriors; Guenever, 1940, The Four Queens find Launcelot Sleeping, 1941,(not in the exhibition) Aphrodite in Aulis, 1940-41 and Epiphany, 1941: Britannia and Germania Embracing, 1941 (not in the exhibition).
In 1947 whilst admitted to Bowden House in Harrow, he worked on a series of intricately drawn studies of trees, which he could see from his window. As Jones’ horizons gradually contracted, his painterly focus shifted from a delight in the exterior world, to a reflective series of still lifes of chalices.
From the mid-1940s until the 1960s Jones concentrated on his painted inscriptions. The
words were the starting point but their form and juxtaposition also worked on a visual level, which was both abstract and evocative.
Jones was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1951 and a major retrospective of his work was mounted by the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1954-5. He published a number of texts, including Epoch and Artist: Selected Writings, 1959 and The Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments, published in 1974.
Jones died in 1974 and a Memorial exhibition was held at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge the following year with a retrospective at Tate Gallery in 1981. A centenary exhibition was held at the National Museum of Wales in 1995.
This exhibition is the first in twenty years to reconsider the complex nature of Jones’s work and its continuing interest and influence.
Pre-visit Activities
LookLook at a selection of wood-engravings and paintings by David Jones before your visit. Use the links and books below for reference.
ExploreLinks to explore before you visit
BBC/ Your Paintingshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/search/painted_by/david-jones_artists
ReadGray, Nicolete, The Paintings of David Jones, Lund Humphries in associaiton with Tate Gallery, London, 1989
Hills, Paul, David Jones, Tate, London, 1981
Bankes, Ariane and Hills, Paul, The Art of David Jones Vision and Memory, Pallant House Gallery in association with Lund Humphries, 2015
Key TextsJones, David, In Parenthesis, Faber and Faber, republished 2010
Jones, David, The Anathemata, Faber and Faber, republished 2010
Old Testament Stories: Book of Jonah
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Malory, Thomas, Le Morte d’Arthur
What is a gallery?Discuss what a gallery is and what is special about looking at original artwork in comparison to a reproduction.
Who are galleries for?
Ask about any other galleries or museums they have been to and what they saw there?
First World War - artists and poetsRoman Catholicism - terms and referencesArthurian Legends
Think like a CuratorThe role of a curator is to decide on the theme of the exhibition, choose what artworks to display and where to put them.
As you explore the exhibition, think about the following:
What is the theme of this exhibition?Why have certain artworks been put together?Is there anything you would put in a different place? and why?What was your favourite artwork? and why?Which artwork did you least like? and why?
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Key Themes: A Town Child’s Journey
From an early age David Jones had a keen sense of history. He loved reading Arthurian
legends, Roman and British history, stories from the Welsh epics and Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. His response to history was on the level of the individual; the stories of people and the places they lived. He understood it as part of an unbroken continuum between the past and the present as well as a connection with a sense of place.
Drawing was central to his early life. He was particularly interested in drawing animals and made many sketches during visits to London Zoo. In The Lion, 1902, a remarkably mature drawing for a boy of seven, he manages to capture the emotional life of the subject and a close sense of harmony with the natural world. Animals would feature in much of his work and would be depicted for their own physical grace and beauty as well as their symbolic significance.
As an artist Jones was concerned with both the material as well as the spiritual world and believed that the act of making art, which was gratuitous, was what made one human. This idea is captured in the title to his self-portrait Work in Focus: Human Being, 1931.
Jones may have seen work by Picasso, Matisse and Derain at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition curated by Roger Fry at the Grafton Galleries in 1912, but he certainly found in Post-Impressionist theory a parallel with what he understood about the Catholic Eucharist: that, as he put it, ‘the insistence that painting must be a thing and not the impression of something has affinity with what the Church said of the Mass’.3
Many of the wood blocks Jones engraved at Ditchling are no larger than 10cm in height or width. He found this limitation concentrated the eye and mind upon essentials and brought together form and symbol. They are complete in both their pattern and design as well as their message and meaning.
Briefly engaged to Eric Gill ’s daughter Petra, he marked this moment in a small oil painting
The Lion, 1902, Pencil on paper, Trustees of the David Jones Estate
The Garden Enclosed, 1924, entitled after the Song of Songs 4:12 which celebrates the virtue of the beloved maiden. It is an intense painting, heightened by the play with perspective which tilts the ground as if to suggest an underlying unease. A brick path divides the painting. To one side Jones embraces Petra, who puts up her hand to stop his advances, whilst on the other side a flock of geese run away through a tangle of trees. Where the path divides, a small rag doll lies discarded.
When the Gills moved to a former monastery at Capel-y-ffin Jones was able to visit and spend much of his next three years in Wales. It is probably at Capel that Jones first tried his hand at engraving on copper. For Jones the beauty of this technique lay in the ‘lyricism inherent in the clean, furrowed free, fluent engraved line’.4 This can be seen in an engraving he produced for a Christmas card, which he used to print and send to friends, Work in Focus: Nativity with Shepherds and Beasts Rejoicing, 1929-30.
The Nativity and the central grace of the Virgin Mary, ‘the one mother to us all’, was of great significance to Jones. In an early wood-engraving he included the words ‘By the Mystery of thy Holy Incarnation deliver us. O Virgin Mother! He whom the whole world cannot hold was enclosed in thy Womb’.5
He would link this sense of protection or shelter provided by his faith to the ancient hills and landscape, especially of Wales, as well as his experience in the war, where he likened life in the trenches to being ‘wombed of earth’.
The Garden Enclosed, 1924, Oil on canvas, Tate
Work in Focus: Human Being, 1931Oil on canvasPrivate collection
Try to describe this portrait?In this painting we see the portrait of a young-looking man; head and shoulders down to mid-chest. His arms are crossed in front of him and resting on a table top or ledge, his hands are folded in towards himself. His almond shaped brown eyes look to one side, and are framed by Jones’ distinctive fringe. His white shirt and brown green jacket are enlivened with loose brush strokes and a highlight of red, on the tie and the breast pocket handkerchief.
The background is loosely painted with patches of paint layered over each other, giving a texture reminiscent of a lime washed wall, perhaps in a studio. To the right is a partial square area with two hooks. From one hangs a strange item, perhaps a piece of clothing, but with a suggestion of a fish shape. It has been suggested that this could evoke the ichthys, the sign of a fish as symbol of Christ.
What does it tell us about David Jones?Jones was in his mid-thirties when he painted it, yet he portrays himself as little more than a boy, suspended between youth and maturity - a dreamy individual with strong and supple maker’s hands.
Fine lines used to emphasis the details around his face and a black outline to his hands, which stands out against the pink flesh tones, seem to defined these two areas. It is as if he wanted to make a connection between his intellectual or thoughtful quality and his hands, with which he makes his art. While his body, his physical being, is rendered in a much looser painterly style, which seems to merge with the background.
Jim Ede once described him as ‘someone with a strange force which comes, not out of the strength of his body, but from the strength of his intention; eyes which collect things inwardly, a body, still yet alert, and fingers which are sensitive instruments at his commanding’.6
How does this painting make you feel about Jones ?
How would you depict yourself in a self-portrait?
PSHE: How we see and portray ourselves can be revealing of our beliefs, values and self-identity.
Study other self-portraits, taking examples from different periods. Think about what qualities they reveal about the subject.
Discuss how you would represent yourself.
Work in Focus: Nativity with Beasts and Shepherds Rejoicing, 1929-30DrypointPrivate Collection
Try to list all the different elements in this picture?The Virgin Mary lies cradling the swaddled infant Jesus. A sheaf of corn is used for a bolster under her head. They are sheltered by a building that has walls on two sides. The other two sides are open to the elements, enabling us to see the scene inside, but also through, to the surrounding hills and trees. Crossed beams suggest the underside of the roof, suggesting an outside building, or stable.
In the top right corner a star shines down onto the Virgin. Around the roof hover five graceful birds. Their wings outstretched as they soar heavenwards, as if a heavenly host of angels. Three trees are arranged around the scene - two winter trees stand bare on the hillside. The third tree, to the left of the shelter, has a branch with delicate leaves and flowers, each with three stamens, which could represent the Holy Trinity. The branch points towards the central figures in the scene.
In the foreground a cow bends tenderly towards its calf, while behind her another calf inquisitively peers toward the Virgin and Child as it nuzzles Mary’s shoulder.
The Virgin and Child are attended by four figures; three shepherds and a shepherdess who stands embracing a small lamb or goat. One shepherd wears a loose tunic garment and sits by a fire. A second figure holds a shepherd’s crook. He raises his hand to remove his hat, and over his shoulder is draped an animal pelt. The third shepherd sits crossed-legged playing a lute or guitar, while his faithful dog sits by his side.
Think about the story of the Nativity. Why did Jones include all these various elements and what might they represent? The story of the Nativity is widely depicted in art, often showing both the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi arranged on either side of the Virgin and Child. In this picture Jones has chosen to depict a more informal, earthly scene. All the figures and creatures have been depicted with the same grace and beauty of line which gives the picture great harmony and balance.
The light from the Star of Bethlehem, which has guided the shepherds to the stable, also pierces the building. This alludes to a stylistic technique in Italian Renaissance paintings when depicting the Annunciation.
This link to the Italian Renaissance can also be seen by the inclusion of the shepherdess. The flow of her hair and the folds in her skirt give her a great sense of movement as she dances into the picture. She is reminiscent of the figures from Sandro Botticelli’s painting Primavera, c.1482, in which the central figure is Venus the Goddess of Love and the painting celebrates the coming of Spring. In this way Jones is making connections across differing timescales and stories, which serve to reinforce the primary message of the picture.
Jones also takes a step further back into ancient British history by including the prancing horse in the field. Positioned on the side of the hill, it evokes the ancient chalk drawings of horses that can be found in Britain.
Further discussion ideas•
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What emotions are conveyed in this picture?
What do you think the picture gains or lacks from being a black and white, linear etching?
Art/Drama: The story of the Nativity is well known and has been represented in many different ways.
Design or arrange your own Nativity scene - what would you include? - think about colours and materials as well as the setting, objects and figures.
Key Themes: Voyaging Out
Between 1924 and 1929 Jones led a peripatetic life moving between Wales,
London and a short trip to France in 1928. In Wales, home of his forefathers Jones saw a ‘land of enchantment’. Painting in watercolour, Jones responded deeply to the forms and rhythms of the hills and trees, as well as the animals around him as can be seen in Work in Focus: Capel-y-ffin, 1926 -7.
He also saw a continuity with a past that linked the present time to that of Arthurian Britain. As John Rothenstein put it ‘it was from his father’s [side] that he inherited the poetic outlook that played so predominant a part in both his painting and writing, above all that particularly Welsh time-sense which naturally relates the present to the remote and makes the possessors of it in a very special degree the heirs of legend’.7
The former monastery where Jones stayed was on one side of the valley and looked straight onto the curious, looming form of Y Twmpa or The Tump. The hill exerted endless fascination for Jones in its varying lights and contours. In Hill Pasture, Capel-y-ffin Jones depicts two ponies grazing against a tumble of hills. There is an overall decorative pattern to the rhythm of the hills as well as a sense of time passing, with the trees shown at different seasonal stages, while the ponies seem to be timeless and enduring. During this time Jones also received three commissions to make engravings for the Golden Cockerel Press. Printed on an Albion hand press on hand-made paper, the Golden Cockerel publications set new standards in wood-engraved illustrations.
The first commission, in 1925, was to make 42 engravings for Gulliver’s Travels. Confined by the prescribed block size, measuring just 5.7 cm x 5.7cm Jones, inspired by the fantastic contrasts of scale demanded by the story, created dramatic scenes. The next two commissions were for The Book of Jonah, 1926 and The Chester Play of the Deluge, 1927.
These two narratives spoke to Jones’ understanding of good and evil as shaped by the experience of the Great War. They trace what has been called ‘the
Hill Pasture, Capel-y-ffin, 1926, Pencil, watercolour and chalk, Private Collection
Landscape, Salies de Béarn, 1928, Pencil and watercolour, Private collection
poetics of passage’; their central figures - Jonah and Noah - all pass through suffering and sacrifice before finally reaching hope of redemption. In Work in Focus: The Waters Compass Me About Jones depicts Jonah’s descent into the sea, which is read as Christ’s Descent into Limbo and the saving of the souls of the just.
The Chester Play of the Deluge tells the story of Noah’s Ark. Jones produced ten blocks illustrating each stage of the story. At the centre of the book , facing each other, are two engravings, Animals approaching the Ark and Animals entering the Ark, showing all the animals entering the art and being welcomed by the family of Noah. They recall Jones’ love of drawing animals and within every engraving
Animals Entering the Ark, from The Chester Play of the Deluge, 1927, Wood engraving, Private Collection
Animals Approaching the Ark, from The Chester Play of the Deluge, 1927, Wood engraving, Private Collection
there is an internal rhythm which keeps the eye moving over and around the tautly designed scene. Jones’ observant eye can be seen in the twist and turns of the animals heads as they process across the image. These are widely recognised as his masterpiece in wood-engraving.
A trip to France with the Gills in 1928, his first trip abroad since the war, opened up his work to a greater lightness and colour. They stayed in the Villa des Palmiers, above the small town of Salies-de-Béarn, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Jones would sit on the balcony to paint, producing quick bold paintings full of movement and colour, Landscape, Salies-de-Béarn. This new-found ease with colour and contour informed his paintings when he returned to England.
Work in Focus: Capel-y-ffin, 1926-7Watercolour and gouacheAmgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Describe the colours, forms and lines you can see in this painting.The mauve-pink path which splits the picture leads the eye through the wooded landscape of Capel-y-ffin and off towards the distant view of Y Twmpa and its encircling hills.
These strong lines divide the foreground of the picture into separate, almost triangular, areas. This encourages you to look at each one in turn, as well as giving an overall pattern and rhythm to the composition. In the bottom left, we can see three tree stumps which have a fleshy corporeal feel to them. Moving along the path, behind an undulating low bank, two ponies stand grazing.
In the middle section, facing the ponies is a small geometric building, with a chimney with smoke coming from it, suggesting that it is a dwelling, although no figures can be seen. The other building in the picture is the former monastery at Capel-y-ffin, where the Gills and Jones stayed during this time. The main building is simply depicted and is hidden by the autumnal trees. The outbuildings, which slope down the hillside, have been painted in rectangular planes of colour, similar to the mauve colour to the path and the slate blue sky. This has stylistic connections to the buildings and landscapes Cézanne painted in Provence, often of his favourite motif, the dominating Mont Sainte Victoire.
The foliage on the tangled branches is rendered with short, schematic brushstrokes which give movement to the trees. As the tangled tree branches and winding path crisscross the picture they are set against the solid, simple forms of the hills behind.
What sort of atmosphere is created within this painting?In this work Jones has used bold, simplified forms to create an internal rhythm to the painting. The tilted perspective flattens out any sense of recessional depth creating a strong overall pattern to the composition and gives the painting a dreamlike quality.
The buildings, which appear strangely deserted, seem a tangible part of the folds and layers of the landscape. There is a feeling that while they might last for only a short period of time; the solid, timeless hills and trees will continue to stand.
The whole scene is bathed in one equal light, giving the painting an eerie, timeless quality. This sense of existing across ages is reinforced by the schematic figures of the ponies, evocative of the ancient drawings of horses found on the walls of pre-historic caves or carved into the hillside.
If you were to enter this painting, think about where you would stand and how you would feel?
Does this painting remind you of anywhere you have been?
Geography / ‘A sense of place’:Jones had a very close connection to the landscape; its history, rhythms as well as physical and spiritual qualities. Think about a specific place and from memory try to think of it in terms of colour, shapes, its history and how it makes you feel.
Work in Focus: The Waters Compass Me About, 1926Wood engravingPrivate Collection
What kinds of elements can you see in this image? How do they convey the story?In this wood-engraving, Jonah is descending into the sea after being thrown overboard from the ship on which he had tried to run away. God had told Jonah to deliver a message to the people of Ninevah. They must repent their ways or their city will be destroyed. Jonah did not want to go, so he tried to travel away by ship. As an awful storm ranged at sea, Jonah is thrown overboard and is swallowed by a great whale. Jonah is sorry for disobeying God and after three days and three nights the whale spits Jonah back out on to dry land. Jonah travels to Ninevah to deliver God’s message. The people repent and so God forgives both them, and Jonah, and their city is not destroyed.
In the centre of the picture there is a half-robed kneeling figure with arms raised. Around his head are the words STE JONAS OPN which signifies that he is Jonah. In the top right hand corner the gaping mouth of a whale can be seen heading towards Jonah. The tip of the mouth just touches the top of the aureole around Jonah’s head, which serves to lead the eye towards Jonah and the centre of the composition.
Jonah’s underwater surroundings are indicated by a myriad of finely engraved sea creatures; fish swim across the picture, leading the eye back and forth, while tentacles and seaweed float around. The various elements frame Jonah as the central figure and add great movement and rhythm to the design of the composition, as well as offering a sense of entanglement or entrapment. The text reads ‘The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever’.
How do the restrictions of the medium affect how Jones has respresented the story?In wood-engraving, the print is made by engraving the reversed design or picture into the surface of a block of end-grain wood. Jones developed his skill while at Ditchling. He learnt to respect the material physicality of the process as well as the disciplined approach required to create a coherent design within the defined size of the block.
The cuts the engraver makes into the wood come out as white, the remaining top surface which gets inked, prints as black. In this way, the artist has to give equal consideration to line and form as well as subject matter, a balance which was central to Jones’ understanding of art.
In this picture, Jonah is depicted in a solid white, with fine black lines and hatching to give just a suggestion of form to his body and face. This makes him stand out as if lit by an otherworldly light. In contrast, the complete blackness of the whale’s mouth, which was to engulf Jonah, could represent a life without light for those who do not follow the word of God. Jonah is often seen as a type for Christ; Jonah’s descent into the depths of the water, as described in the Old Testament, is symbolic of Jesus’ descent into Hell after he was crucified, as described in the New Testament.
Jones understood how the unreality of white-line engraving endowed the simplest of design with a visionary aura. He was a master at paring down line and form to its essential qualities. His designs resonate with both a clarity of vision and deep felt empathy and emotion.
Further Discussion Ideas:•
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Think about how the bold use of contrast between light and dark affects an image.
If you did not know the story, what would you think is happening?
Music: Try to compose a piece of music which responds to the rhythms, movement and emotions in this picture.
Art: Chose a scene from a story. Think about the essential qualities that are required to convey the message. Design and produce your own wood-engraving.
Key Themes: Interior Lives and Magic Casements
Back in London Jones was developing tentative forays into the commercial gallery world. In
1927 he had his first London exhibition and his work was described as ‘exquisite. Quite apart from the colour, and the design into which it was woven, there was here a charm, an imponderable delicacy and gentleness of vision, maturely handled, that was entirely personal.’ 8
He was also making significant friendships among a wider artistic circle, especially through his friendship with Jim Ede, assistant to the director at the Tate Gallery (and later founder of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge) and Kenneth Clark.
Jones came to know Winifred and Ben Nicholson. Nicholson’s influence can be seen in a still life Syphon and Salver, 1930 where Jones uses thinned oil paint to sketch forms and contours that are flatten and insubstantial. It was not only Ben Nicholson that Jones admired; he felt a strong affinity with Winifred too. As a Christian Scientist she had a powerful sense of the presence of God in nature which is captured in her still-lifes with flowers. Jones too started to paint vases of flowers and imbued them with a similar intensity and meaning beyond their tangible appearance.
Jones also formed a close friendship with Harman Grisewood with whom he discussed poetry, painting and religion, and captured in a striking portrait Work in Focus: Portrait of a Maker (Harman Grisewood), 1930.
It was in a seaside bungalow at Portslade, a mile to the west of Brighton in 1927 that Jones began to write In Parenthesis, his response to his experience to the Great War. It was eventually published in 1937. During this period he also developed his confidence and skill as a painter of intricate watercolours. An early example is Work in Focus: The Artist’s Worktable, 1929, which delicately depicts the tools of his trade arrayed below his bedroom window, framed by the fluttering transparent curtains, which would become a favourite motif.
Jones was greatly inspired by the sea and the symbolism of water as the giver of life. Some
Syphon and Salver, 1930, Oil on board, Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Manawydan’s Glass Door, 1931, Pencil and watercolour, Private Collection
reference to water can be found in many of his paintings.
Mainly working inside, looking out into the light, Jones manipulated perspective, scale and tone to suggest the continuum with past times. In Manawydan’s Glass Door the boundary between the sea and room seems to dissolve, while colour appears independent of outline suggesting a fluidity of experience as well as of paint.
In 1928 Douglas Cleverdon commissioned Jones to illustrate The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which was published in 1929. A favourite poem since childhood, Jones felt that to reveal the layers of meaning in the narrative, he needed to use ‘simple incised lines reinforced here and there and as sparingly as possible by cross-hatched areas’. The fluent line of these copper-engravings give them a dream-like quality. The voyage is a metaphor for the journey of the soul, and the Ancient Mariner’s ordeal an allegory of redemption. In The Albatross, the Albatross is impaled by the Mariner’s arrow to the crossbar of the mast, likening the shooting of the innocent bird to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
The Albatross, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1928, Copper-engraving, Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Work in Focus: Portrait of a Maker (Harman Grisewood), 1932Oil on canvasAmgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
How would you describe this portrait?Sketchy and unfinished may be an initial response to this almost ethereal portrait. As with Jones’ own self-portrait, see Work in Focus: Human Being, he has focused on Grisewood’s face and hands. Unlike Jones, Grisewood was not a painter but a literary man, a radio actor who was trying to write poetry.
The sensitive profile with pointed nose, jutting chin and cradled hands are rendered with a delicacy markedly at odds with the looser, broad-brush style elsewhere. The oil paint has been thinned to allow maximum texture and variety in the expressionistic brushwork which hints at a trench coat and background.
As with some of Jones’ still lifes at around this time, there is a use of line that is independent of form, which animates the surface of the painting.Despite a suggestion of space defined by the windowsill and bottle, the image has a dreamlike quality to it. His faraway stare and the way his face is lit by an unknown source imply that Jones set out to convey Grisewood’s inner life more than his outer appearance.
Why do you think Jones used the word ‘Maker’?The title, Portrait of a Maker, has been explained by Grisewood as relating to the word makar, a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard. It was used in connection with the fifteenth-century Scottish poet William Dunbar, whose poems dealt with religious and courtly subject matter.
Jones was discovering himself as a poet and Grisewood recalls talking to Jones about this, during the time he sat for this portrait in Jones’ bedroom in Brockley.
By linking both the sitter and himself with a previous age, Jones is conflating time, as if all acts of creativity can be understood as part of a continuum. This sense of timelessness is captured in the sitter’s expression and indeterminate state, as if not belonging physically to the present moment.
Think about the colours and brushstrokes used in this painting.
Do you think it is a good portrait?
Creative Writing: Write a poem in response to this painting. Think about how it makes you feel, or what the sitter might be thinking about.
Work in Focus: The Artist’s Worktable,1929Pencil and WatercolourPrivate collection
What kinds of objects do you see in this painting?This scene was painted in Jones’ bedroom, which also doubled as his studio. It was from here that he loved to paint the outlook and the curtained window was to be a favourite motif. It enabled Jones to explore the transparency of curtains and glass, to create a visual ambiguity and liquefy the boundaries between interior and exterior worlds.
On the table can be seen an array of objects: a rag or piece of cloth, sponge, scissors, a jar of brushes, pad of paper, a bottle of blue liquid and a round dish of paint. In the carelessly opened draw, we can see perhaps an engraving tool and small bottle. On the table stands a jug of flowers, their proliferation counterbalancing the arabesques of tendrils and creepers visible beyond the windowpane.
Do you think this painting tells us more about David Jones than a portrait?Self expression through objects has been greatly exploited by artists and writers. Objects, either those used to create their work, or linked to their lives, often stand in for the artist themselves. They can sometime tell us more about the character and sensibility than a portrait, which merely relays a physical likeness at a certain time in their lives.
In this work Jones has depicted the tools of his trade in finely observed detail. It gives a sense that these objects are very personal to him and an essential part of his daily life. The setting is also his bedroom, again a personal environment in which he found the peace in which to work. He returned to his family home on a regular basis until the death of his mother in 1937.
The stability of the picture is questioned by Jones’ tilting of perspective and viewpoint. We see the room as if floating at a higher level, looking down from a distance. The table top tilts to one side, as if the objects might at any moment slide off. This sense of flux is echoed in the flow of the curtains and the half opened window through which tendrils have crept, giving the room a sense of transparency and insubstantiality. Does this give us a sense of Jones’ emotional state?
How do you think Jones sees his own creative space? Can you image him working at the table?
Further Discussion Ideas:•
Art: Set up your own creative space, what would you have in it?
Key Themes: Wounded Knight
The rituals of war and the mythology of fighting men were never far from Jones’ mind.
As a child he loved the Arthurian stories and medieval history. Whilst in the trenches, he would carry his sketchbook in his pack and find time to sketch the commonplace as well as searching out beauty or interest in the devastated landscape. In Trench Landscape: ‘landscape shrapnel burst, 1916 we see a group of burnt trees to the left surrounding a dwelling. If trees are seen in terms of life and renewal they are here reduced to charred and lifeless forms. Their grouping however suggests the crosses at Calvary and so offers hope of redemption. Jones would further explore the symbolic meaning of trees in series of later work.
In trying to make sense of the death of so many comrades in battle, Jones turned to the Christian doctrine of sacrifice and salvation. This came not only from his religious belief but was underscored by his reading and love of earlier texts such as Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and other myths and legends. The central figure of a semi-divine hero or king would often be sacrificed or undergo a perilous quest in order to restore fertility or life to the land. In 1929 he was commissioned by Douglas Cleverdon to engrave a complete Morte d’Arthur. However, owing to failing eyesight, Jones produced only one trial engraving Work in Focus: Wounded Knight, 1929-30 which in one sense is a Celtic pietà.
Jones also alluded to the Madonna in an earlier portrait he had made of Petra. Although greatly saddened when she broke off their engagement in 1927, he painted three portraits of her, the last being Petra im Rosenhag, 1930-31. The painting’s title alludes to Renaissance images of the Madonna in a rose arbour, while the tumble of flowers that surround her and flow across the folds of her dress suggest a Primavera figure. This reflects the way Jones’ relationship with Petra had changed, from the earthly and worldly to that of the ideal or symbolic.
After his breakdown in 1932 Jones did not paint again for another four years. In 1940 he moved back to London and embarked on three large coloured drawings. Guenever, 1940, The Four
Queens find Launcelot Sleeping, 1941(not in the exhibition) and Work in Focus: Aphrodite in Aulis, 1940-41 which draw on historical, literary, painterly and religious texts and where called his ‘subject’ pictures. All are complex compositions of figures in elaborate dream-like settings. Made when the artist was witnessing the bombing of many of London’s buildings, including churches, these drawings employ architecture and ruins to link the distant past to the present.
Petra im Rosenhag, 1931, Pencil, watercolour and gouache, Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Work in Focus: Wounded Knight, 1929–30DrypointPrivate Collection
How would you describe this picture?The scratchy appearance of the line in this picture is due to the technique Jones used, known as drypoint. Drypoint is a variant of engraving on copper, in which the burr, or shaving of metal forced up by the burin, is not removed from the plate. Since the burr attracts the ink, drypoints print a uneven line.
The central figures are a young man being cradled in the arms of a woman. They gaze into each other’s eyes. His side and arm have been pierced by an arrow. Behind these figures is a tall rock, set in front of a body of water. To the right, another, much smaller figure, lays prostrate on the ground, with one arm flung across his face. In the background two riderless horses cavort near the water’s edge while to the left, two figures on horses are engaged in an encounter. In the sky, a brilliant sun shines down on the scene.
The central figures are much larger in scale and so dominate the composition. While there seems to be movement and activity in the background, these two figures remain quite still, as if locked together in an eternal embrace.
What is the story?We know that the picture was a trial engraving for a proposed series of illustrations of Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, a compilation of traditional tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table. It was a story Jones has read and loved from an early age with its themes of chivalry, betrayal, love and honour. In this particular scene Arthur has been mortally injured during the Battle of Camlann by his nephew Mordred.
It can be read as a pietà image in which the female figure is the Virgin Mary, while Arthur takes the place of Christ. His side pieced as it was on the Cross. It is also reminiscent of one of Jones’ earlier engravings, that of The Albatross, from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, in which the albatross is pierced to the mast of the ship. Again Jones likens the shooting of the innocent bird to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
As it draws from different ideas and times, it also stands for a more universal commemoration of the fallen, the wounded knights of all eras. Two years earlier Jones had begun the narrative poem which became In Parenthesis about the experiences of a soldier in the First World War.
Think about the way this picture is drawn and how the various lines and forms are repeated within the composition.
If it was in colour, what colours would be used?
Creative Writing: Extend the story, write or draw the scenes you think would come before and after this particular moment.
Work in Focus: Aphrodite in Aulis, 1940-41Pencil, ink and watercolourTate
Try to describe what is happening in this pictureAphrodite, the goddess of pleasure, and procreation, stands on top of a classical column, shackled by one ankle. She is portrayed as both classical statue and living flesh, partially draped by a diaphanous cloth. The column also serves as an altar, at which the tonsured figure of a priest holds aloft a thurible, a metal censer suspended from a chain, in which incense is burned during Mass. At Aphrodite’s feet is the Agnus Dei, Lamb of God, which bleeds into a chalice.
To either side of Aphrodite stands an attendant soldier; part classical statue, part contemporary warrior. On her right, the figure wears the steel helmet of a British soldier in World War I. In his right hand he carries a lance, which is the lance of Longinus, the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in his side while on the Cross. On her left, the figure wears a more Germanic style helmet, and on his arm is the fasces - the Roman insignia of the fascist. Right arm raised in salute, in his left hand he holds a rifle, which is mysteriously bursting into leaf.
This format, of a raised central figure flanked on either side, can be seen as that of the Crucifixion. Like Christ, Aphrodite in the centre is both object of worship and victim of sacrifice. On her right is the Tommy who takes the place of the Penitent Thief, while the German soldier is placed on her left, in the role of Impenitent Thief.
For Jones the common solider was seen as an eternal Everyman. He has always defended his country and homeland: ‘anonymous, unknown, peasant or small town labourer, he sailed with Odysseus...was at Agincourt, he was a Desert Rat. He carries the tradition of three thousand years. He is timeless.’ 9
Surrounding the three main central figures, the whole picture surface is filled with ‘all the occupants of the artist’s mind’. There are soldiers from many different armies, horses, trees and temples, ships on the sea, a zeppelin in the sky, wild hills and birds.
What emotional state is present in this picture?In emotional terms, the picture is full of ambivalence. Although there is a sense of worship and adoration, there is an unsettling undertone of aggression and instability. All around there is chaos and destruction; ruined buildings and temples, once held up by soaring columns, are now cracked and crumbling. Horses and warriors battle in an endless struggle.
The birds that swoop down from a sky which contains both a crescent moon and a shining sun have a suggestion of violence and attack to their flight, which is echoed by the presence of a zeppelin hovering overhead.
How does this painting make you feel?
Are you drawn into the picture by the many different elements to look at and references that can be made?
History: Think about the many layers of history referenced in this painting, and try to make a visual timeline.
Key Themes: Poetic Vision
In 1946 Jones’ illness recurred, but instead of being advised to stop painting, it was seen
as part of his treatment. During this time he stayed at Bowden House, Harrow. Its grounds were densely planted with tall trees, and their soaring trunks and waving branches provided a perfect subject, which Jones drew repeatedly from his room. To Jones, trees embodied life and potency and they held great significance for him. They were part of a timeless landscape, the devastated wasteland of the Western Front, and through the Tree of the Cross a symbol of hope of Redemption. Combining strength and delicacy, his trees soar heavenwards catching light and movement in their branches.
The series of drawings feature simple studies such as Laetare Sunday, Thrush, 1948, in which Jones celebrates the fourth Sunday in Lent, with the tiny songbird high in the branches signalling the Easter joy to come. His expression also found greater complexity in Work in Focus: Vexilla Regis, 1947-8, which is richly layered with symbolism.
In the 1950s Jones embarked on a series of reflective still-lifes. Common to them all is a large glass goblet resembling the chalice used during Mass. In Flora in Calix-Light, 1950, Jones is celebrating life through a combination of natural subject-matter and religious symbolism. The visual elements of the work are quite simple: three stemmed glasses on a highly polished table are set before an open window. The incidental details – the edge of a chair, the window latches and open window - are depicted in fine detail. There is a profusion of flowers, leaves and thorny stems. They burst forth in an entangled mass, their reflections combining with fallen leaves and petals.
In these chalice paintings Jones perfectly evokes the universal through the particular, the invisible and evanescent through the lovingly depicted here and now.10
Between the early 1940s and late 1960s Jones made some 80 painted inscriptions. Although the words Jones chose are charged with significance, they were more than just text. Jones referred to them as ‘my form of abstraction’.11 The individual letters and their arrangement are to be looked at, and considered in terms of shape and colour and the negative space created by their careful juxtaposition.
Although Jones’s early inscriptions are almost entirely in Latin, he later drew on Welsh words and early English poetry. Varying in language, Jones also used differing lettering styles to Laetare Sunday, Thrush, 1948, Chalk and watercolour, Pallant
House Gallery (Kearley Bequest through The Art Fund, 1985)
Flora in Calix-Light, 1950, Pencil and watercolour, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge
evoke both differences and continuities of history, place and culture. Jones also played with line and word breaks to defamiliarise significant words.
In later inscriptions Jones often wrapped lines around the central block of text, IN PRINCIPIO ERAT VERBUM, c.1951. The central text reads ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’.
The first instance of the word Verbum, which translates as ‘the word’ and stands for God, is highlighted in red. In the second instance, just the V is in red, as if God can be known by a single letter. In the third instance, Verbum is in green, as if to highlight the change, that God has now become flesh - Jesus. Here, a swirl from the letter R in VIRGO / Virgin is written around the side and literally links the words together. The text around the edge reads ‘The Virgin gave birth to Him who was God and man’.
In all his inscriptions Jones worked to achieve unity through a painterly process, rather than pre-planned design. Starting with only slight indications in pencil of the letters, he would adjust their weight and presence on the page by working round them with Chinese white. In this way they are an important part of his work as a visual artist and retain a sense of being an object in their own right.
In his last two paintings Y Cyfarchiad i Fair (The Greeting to Mary / Annunciation in a Welsh Hill Setting), 1963 and Work in Focus: Trystan ac Essyllt, 1959-67 Jones revisits themes that had circled around his imagination throughout his creative life. A celebration of the Annunciation, the layering of ancient myths and Christian symbolism, a perilous quest set within a timeless landscape or across a sea, and the human, earthly relations between man and woman.
IN PRINCIPIO ERAT VERBUM, c.1951, Watercolour, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Work in Focus: Vexilla Regis, 1947-8
Pencil and watercolourKettle’s Yard, Cambridge
What can we see in this picture and what might it mean?Jones had a wide, questioning, unsystematic range of knowledge - classical, Welsh, archaeological and theological. These sources ‘find their way’ into his paintings because they are part of his mind. They are flexible, of varying importance, liable to conflation and alteration.12
In this picture, three trees stand on a hill within a wooded landscape where horses gallop. One of the trees is wedged into the ground; it is more a decorated triumphal column than a living tree, upon which an eagle sits resplendent. The links between Roman Imperialism and Christian iconography, illustrates Jones’ belief in the continuity between the Roman and Christian eras.
In the sky doves descend from heaven, drawing the eye towards the central tree and a wreath of flowers that encircle one of its branches. This could stand for the crown of thorns, when seen next to the nails which have been hammered into the trunk. The tangle of thorny foliage at the base of the central tree also echoes the barbed wire that ensnared both solider and horses in the Great War.
For Jones it was the implication, not the actuality, of the Crucifixion that was of greatest significance. In this way its message can be understood through the myths and legends of other times and cultures as well bringing it into the present time.
How important is it to understand all the references in a painting ?In a letter Jones set out some of the ideas that were in the painting, but he also wrote ‘I should like to make plain that none of this symbolism is meant to be at all rigid, but fluid - I merely write down a few of the mixed ideas that got into this picture as you were kind enough to ask.’
Some of the ideas Jones listed included reference to a passage in Revelation: ‘on both sides of the river was the tree of life’, as well as a Latin hymn sung as part of the Good Friday liturgy in the Roman rite: Vexilla Regis prodeunt, ‘Forth come the standards of the King’...in which are many allusions to the tree and the Cross, and to the Cross as a tree etc.
The general idea of the picture was also associated, in his mind, with the collapse of the Roman world. This conflation of time is played out in the distance where a classical temple, stone circle, stone turret and a small dwelling all find a place among the timeless hills. ‘The three trees as it were left standing on Calvary - the various bits and pieces of classical ruins dotting the landscape - also older things, such as the ... ‘druidic’ circle...and the Welsh hills.
‘The tree on the left of the main tree is, as it were, the tree of the ‘good thief’, it grows firmly in the ground and the pelican has made her nest and feeds her young in its branches - Our Lord is likened to a pelican in her piety in one of the Latin hymns of Thomas Aquinas. The tree on the right is that of the other thief. Jones also puts as a P.S. ‘Also of course the Yggdrasil of Northern mythology, the great tree with its roots far in the earth and its flowers in heaven no doubt comes into the picture’.13
Further Discussion Ideas:•
•
Imagine you are in this picture. Where would you stand and how would you be feeling?
Does it remind you of anywhere you have been?
Creative writing: Jones produced this and other tree drawings as part of his treatment. Write a piece that responds to how this picture makes you feel.
Work in Focus: Trystan ac Essyllt, 1959-67Pencil, watercolour and gouacheAmgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Try to tell the story depicted in this paintingThe story is of the adulterous love between the knight Trystan and the Irish princess Essyllt. As Trystan escorts Essyllt across the sea to her wedding with his uncle King Mark, they drink a love potion that binds them together in a fateful destiny.
Two figures stand on the deck of a ship. One figure is dressed in knight’s amour. His head is bowed and his expression is of hopelessness. His arms are crossed and entwined with those of the more dominant female figure. She holds up her dress and she strides forward with her bare leg, her blonde hair blowing in the wind, to encircle and entrap him. She is dressed in a finely detailed dress of bows and ribbons. In her right hand she holds a drinking cup, from which she has encouraged Trystan to drink.
Upon the unfurled sails hang naked figures; perhaps souls of the damned, prefiguring the tragedy of the story. However there are also humorous touches, such as the cat trying to balance on the tilted deck, and the two wolf-hounds, one howling pitifully, set loose on a small rowing boat.
Jones took enormous pains to get his nautical details true by studying nautical manuals. The intricate rigging and finely rendered detailing, drawn with precision and beauty, gives the vessel a great presence. It dominates the picture, as it continues unabated on its journey across the sea, escorted by an accompanying vessel.
Within this story Jones could explore his recurrent themes of ‘the poetics of passage’ and the voyage of destiny, in which the central figure/s must go through various stages of adversity before seeking redemption. The ship which could stand for the church, with its mast and crossbar, is a sign of salvation and a timeless cycle of love and duty.
Further Discussion Ideas:• Think about the colours and composition.
How much does this tell you about the emotional narrative of the scene?
Drama: Re-enact this story, think about the themes involved.
Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.19ibid., p.113Bankes, Ariane and Hills, Paul, The Art of David Jones Vision and Memory, Pallant House Gallery in association with Lund Humphries, 2015, p.18ibid., p.39ibid., p.40ibid., p22ibid., p.49ibid., p.70Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.60-61ibid., p.147ibid., p.151Gray, Nicolete, The Paintings of David Jones, Lund Humphries in association with Tate Gallery, London, 1989, p.43Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.60-61
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Endnotes
References and ConnectionsExhibition Overview
Wood-engraving A Wood Engraving is a print made from a flat block of end grain wood. End grain means that the wood has been cut across the tree to show the circular growth rings of the wood. To make the printing block specialist tools called gravers are used to score or engrave the image into the wood. Gravers have a wooden handle and a sharp fine straight metal blade which cuts a thin deep line into the wood. The engraved block is inked up using a roller. The ink covers the surface of the block, the engraved lines will not pick up the ink. A sheet of paper is placed on top of the inked block and pressure is applied to the back of the paper using a burnishing tool, which is a smooth disk of wood. This allows the paper to be firmly rubbed or “burnished” to transfer the ink from the small block to the paper to make the print.
Copper-engraving In intaglio printing, the lines to be printed are cut into a plate of a hard substance such as copper by means of a hand-held cutting tool called a burin. Afterwards ink is rubbed into the carved areas and away from the flat surface. Moistened paper is placed over the plate and both are run through the rollers of an intaglio press. The pressure exerted by the press on the paper pushes it into the engraved lines and prints the image made by those lines. In an intaglio print, the engraved lines print black
In Parenthesis An epic World War I poem by David Jones published in England in 1937. The poem won the Hawthornden Prize and the admiration of writers such as W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot. Based on Jones’s own experience as an infantryman, In Parenthesis recounts the experiences of English Private John Ball in a mixed English-Welsh regiment starting with embarkation from England and ending seven months later with the assault on Mametz Wood during the battle of the Somme. The work employs a mixture of lyrical verse and prose, is highly allusive, and ranges in tone from formal to Cockney colloquial and military slang.
The Anathemata Jones’ second poem was inspired in part by a visit to Palestine during
which he was struck by the historic parallels between the British and Roman occupations of the region. The book draws on materials from early British history and mythology and the history and myths of the Mediterranean region.
Eric Gill, 1882-1940 English sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker. In 1907 Gill moved with his family to Ditchling in Sussex where he helped establish an artists’ community that centred around the importance of craftsmanship and the Catholic faith. Gill converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913; which led in 1914 to a commission from Westminster Cathedral for the Stations of the Cross. He also produced secular work, including a sculpture for BBC’s Broadcasting House, London. Gill is also know for designing a number of typefaces, including Gill Sans, 1926-28, as well as a writer and teacher.
The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic A Roman Catholic community of craftsmen. It was established by Eric Gill and fellow craftsmen, printer and social theorist Hilary Pepler (1878-1951) and poet Desmond Chute (1895-1962). Through its private press it published its own booklets and was a pioneer in the revival of wood-engraving in England in the 1920s.
Gulliver’s Travels Written by Jonathan Swift. First published in 1726-7. It is a satire on British and European society through its descriptions of imaginary countries.
The Book of Jonah is one of the Minor Prophets in the Bible. It tells the story of a Hebrew prophet named Jonah who is sent by God to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh but tries to escape the divine mission. His three days in the belly of the whale was regarded as prophetic of Christ’s three days in the tomb before his resurrection.
The Chester Play of the Deluge The Chester Mystery Plays is a cycle of plays dating back to at least the early part of the 15th century. The plays are based on biblical texts, from Creation to the Last Judgement. They were enacted by common guildsmen and craftsmen on mounted stages that were moved around the city streets, with each company or guild performing one play.
References and ConnectionsThe most well-known of the Chester plays relates the story of Noah and the Great Flood, traditionally acted by the Drawers of Dee (watercarriers).
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1797-98. An allegory of sin and redemption in the form of a ballad. It relates the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage: The mariner’s tale begins with his ship departing on its journey during which it becomes stuck in Antarctic waters. An albatross appears and leads them out, but even as the albatross is praised by the ship’s crew, the mariner shoots the bird. The killing of the bird arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship. The crew are angry at the mariner and force him to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer for killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret. The ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and Life-in-Death (a deathly-pale woman), who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner lives on, seeing the curse in the eyes of the dead crew. The mariner comes to see the true beauty of the sea creatures and as he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially lifted. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship.Eventually the mariner comes in sight of his homeland but as penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets.
About the Artist
Walter Sickert, 1860-1942 Influential British painter and founding member of the Camden Town Group. See Pallant House Exhibition Notes: Walter Sickert, available online.
Bernard Meninsky, 1891-1950 A painter of figures and landscape in oils, watercolour and gouache, draughtsman and teacher. In 1920 he was appointed as a tutor of life drawing at the Westminster School of Art.
Paul Cézanne, 1839-1906, was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter. His unique method of building form with colour and his analytical approach to nature influenced the art of Cubists, Fauvists, and successive generations of avant-garde artists.
Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973 A Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer who worked in an unprecedented variety of styles and had enormous influence on 20th century art.
Italian Renaissance generally covers the periods from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the sixteenth century. The Renaissance marked a great cultural change throughout the whole of Europe and is viewed as a bridge between the medieval and modern ages. The notion of rebirth (renaissance) refers to a revival of the values of the classical world.
The Town Child’s Alphabet Written by Eleanor Farjeon and published by The Poetry Bookshop, 1924. It consisted of a poem for each letter of the alphabet and a cover design and twenty-six full-page drawings, mostly two-colour, by David Jones.
The Society of Wood Engravers was founded in 1920 by a group of artists that included Philip Hagreen, Robert Gibbings, Lucien Pissaro, Gwen Raverat and Eric Gill. They held an annual exhibition that attracted work from other notable artists. With the on-set of World War II the group like many other organisations went into a decline due to shortages of both demand for their works and of raw materials. The group never took off in the years following World War II until a revival in the 1980s.
Golden Cockerel Press was an English private press operating between 1920 and 1961. The press was famous for beautiful handmade limited editions of classic works produced to the very highest of standards. The type was hand-set and the books were printed on handmade paper, and sometimes on vellum. A major feature of Golden Cockerel books was the original illustrations, usually engravings, contributed by leading artists of the day.
References and ConnectionsHelen Sutherland, 1881-1965 Collector and patron of the arts. She lived for a time at Rock Hall, near Alnwick which was hung with a growing collection of art works. Her patronage of artists, both in purchasing works and in offering other forms of support, was a major contribution to contemporary art in the 1930s.
H S (‘Jim’) Ede 1895-1990 Harold Stanley Ede, also known as ‘Jim’ Ede, was an English collector of art and often described himself as a ‘friend of artists’. Over the years he gathered a remarkable collection, including paintings by Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, Christopher Wood as well as sculpture by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. He worked as an Assistant Keeper at the Tate Gallery (it was officially called the National Gallery of British Art until 1932), resigning in 1936. In 1957 Jim and his wife Helen bought Kettle’s Yard, a house in Cambridge, where he displayed his collection of art alongside furniture, glass and ceramics. In 1966 he gave the house and its contents to the University of Cambridge. In 1970 the house was extended to include an exhibition gallery.
Winifred Nicholson, 1893-1981 An English painter and colourist who developed a personalized impressionistic style that concentrated on domestic subjects and landscapes. Married to Ben Nicholson 1920-1938.
Ben Nicholson, 1894-1982 An influential painter, Nicholson’s early paintings were still lifes and landscapes although by 1924 he painted his first abstract work, after visiting Paris and being inspired by Cubism. Nicholson, with his second wife, the sculptor Barbara Hepworth moved to Cornwall during World War II and helped establish the St Ives School. The area became famous for abstract painting and sculpture and had a major impact on modern art in Britain.
Seven & Five Society Formed in London in 1919 The Seven & Five Society was initially a traditional group of seven painters and five sculptors. The group’s first exhibition was held in 1920. The exhibition catalogue explained that the society was not formed ‘to advertise a new
“ism” – [we] feel that there has of late been too much pioneering along too many lines in altogether too much of a hurry which reflected their desire for a return to order that followed the First World War. When Ben Nicholson joined in 1924, followed by others such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, they helped change the society into a modernistic one and expelled the non-modernist artists.
A Town Child’s Journey
Arthurian legends The body of stories and medieval romances, centring on the legendary king Arthur. The stories covered Arthur’s birth, the adventures of his knights, and the adulterous love between his knight Sir Lancelot and his queen, Guinevere. This last situation and the quest for the Holy Grail (the vessel used by Christ at the Last Supper and given to Joseph of Arimathea) brought about the dissolution of the knightly fellowship, the death of Arthur, and the destruction of his kingdom.
Thomas Malory, d.1471 Le Morte d’Arthur Malory was an English writer and complier of Le Morte d’Arthur. A compilation of traditional tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table. First published in 1485.
Henri Matisse, 1869-1954 French painter, sculptor, graphic artist and designer. He exhibited in Paris in 1905 with a group of friends, who were dubbed the Fauves (wild beasts) because of the brightness of their colours. His bold use of colour and expressive forms dominated his work and positioned him as a leading figure of modern art.
André Derain, 1880-1954 French painter, sculptor and graphic artist. One of the creators of Fauvism and an early follower of Cubism. He was a central figure to the developments of modern art in Paris in the first two decades of the 20th century.
Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, 1912Curated by Roger Fry, this was the second of two exhibitions that brought the work of contemporary European artists to England. It
References and Connectionsincluded the work of both contemporary British artists such as Eric Gill, Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis and Fry himself alongside Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Paul Cézanne.
Roger Fry, 1866-1934 English critic, painter, and designer. He was curator of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1906–10. After returning to London in 1910 he organized two exhibitions of Post-Impressionist paintings at the Grafton Galleries, in 1910 and 1912. Fry became an influential figure among the Bloomsbury Group, including Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, both of whom worked for the Omega Workshops, which Fry founded in 1913.Kenneth Clark called him ‘incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin’ and said: ‘In so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry.’
Sandro Botticelli, 1445-1510 Florentine painter and draughtsman Sandro Botticelli was one of the most esteemed artists in Italy. He painted graceful pictures of the Madonna and Child, altarpieces and life-size mythological paintings.
Voyaging Out
Albion hand press The Albion hand press was an English bench-top press invented by Richard Whittaker Cope (died 1828) of London in around 1820. Letterpress printing on a hand press involves a technique of relief printing by which many copies are produced by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the “bed” or “chase” of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type which creates an impression on the paper. In practice, letterpress also includes other forms of relief printing such as wood engravings, which can be used alongside metal type, or wood type, in a single operation. Letterpress printing was the normal form of printing text from its invention in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century.
Interior Lives and Magic Casements
Kenneth Clark, 1903-1983 Writer, museum director, broadcaster, and art historian. In 1933 at age 30, Clark was appointed director of the National Gallery. The following year he also became of the Surveyor of the King’s Pictures, a post he held until 1945. As Director of the National Gallery he oversaw the successful relocation and storage of the collection to avoid the Blitz and continued a programme of concerts and performances. As Chairman of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, he persuaded the government not to conscript artists but found them other work as war artists. He was a founding board member and also served as Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain 1955 to 1960, and had a major role in the art programme of the 1951Festival of Britain. In 1969 he wrote and presented Civilisation for the BBC, an influential series on the history of Western civilisation as seen through its art, based upon Clark’s book of the same title.
Harman Grisewood,1906-1997 English radio actor, radio and television executive, novelist and non-fiction writer. From 1929 until 1933 he spent acting in radio plays with the BBC Repertory Company. In 1933 he joined the BBC staff as an announcer and continued until 1936. He held various positions within the BBC including controller of the new BBC Third Programme which reflected his own interests in classical literature and music.
Wounded Knight
Pietà An Italian word which refers to a subject in art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus.
Primavera Refers to Botticelli’s painting titled Primavera or Allegory of Spring, 1482. The painting features six female figures and two male, along with a blindfolded putto, in an orange grove. To the right of the painting, a flower-crowned female figure stands in a floral-patterned dress scattering flowers, collected in the folds of her gown. It is an elaborate mythological allegory for the growth of spring, or the fertility of the world.
Written by Louise WellerDesigned by Louise BristowNatalie Franklin, Learning Programme Manager
