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For the first time we now have a comprehensive, throroughly researched and well written biography of one of our foremost landscape artists from the eighteenth century, Thomas Jones, Pencerrig, born of staunch yeoman stock to parents who produced sixteen children. Three portraits of Thomas Jones have survived. With composite skill and imaginative insight, Richard Veasey has brought together in this fine study the various disparate strands of Jones's interesting life and diverse achievements.Thomas Jones was to some extent 're-discovered' as a celebrated landscape artist during the 1950s when the Pencerrig estate was broken up and sold off, and many of his paintings were put up for sale by the family. He also achieved a new-found fame as a result of the publication of his revealing memoirs by the Walpole Society, and academic articles on his life and work, notably by Professor Prys Morgan, began to appear in print. A major retrospective exhibition was prepared in 2003.We are able to read here fascinating details of the remarkably speedy build up of an extensive estate originally based on Trefonnen near Llandrindod. Originally destined for a career in the established church, Thomas Jones duly graduated from Jesus College, Oxford, where he ran up considerable debts, but the death of his supporter John Hope, his great uncle, saw him devote his life to art thereafter. His artistic output was substantial and embraced sketches in pencil, oil and water colour as well as landscape paintings on a grand scale.Jones's career as a painter, first at London, then for six and a half years within Italy, is delineated prior to his migration to Wales in the year 1787 when, on the death of his elder brother, he came into possession of the extensive Pencerrig estate in Radnorshire which saw Thomas Jones assume the life of a Welsh country squire for the rest of his days, developing the productive capacity of the Pencerrig estate and much enhancing its natural beauty. He developed a keen concern for the welfare of his estate workers, many of whom lived in relative penury, and for the well-being of the wider community. In 1791 Jones was appointed High Sheriff of Radnorshire, and the following year he was selected to be a magistrate.He threw himself into his newfound duties with great gusto, assuming responsibility for an array of landscaping projects on the extensive estate, but also continuing to devote himself to his painting, truly his first love, whenever possible. During the 1790s he devoted himself to the articulate penning of his memoirs which, although rather episodic in structure, depicted a life of extraordinary experiences at London and then Rome and Naples, and include several extended, story-like passages, displaying a talented literary bent. Indeed, his later careers and end products as a writer and landscape painter run in parallel. The memoirs are nourished by his retention of several paintings which he made in Italy and which reminded him of a life which had by then come to an end 'So painting and writing became interactive and complementary processes, enabling him to recall, relive and recreate the past within the present.'Several significant source materials were available to the biographer. As well as the detailed memoirs which give his outspoken views on life and many of his contemporaries, there are the Italian Account Book, 178083, which Jones kept while at Naples together with his partner Maria, and the General Day Book, 178897, devoted to daily life at Pencerrig, some notebooks kept by him, a quantity of correspondence, some legal documents deriving from the Pencerrig estate, and his will. All have been quarried here to give us a pretty complete picture of Jones's everyday life, his artistic accomplishments (some of which are reproduced here as most attractive plates), and his role as a mid-Wales country squire in charge of his extensive estate to which he obviously devoted himself with great dedication and pride.As is shown with clarity in this fine study, Jones contributed to be productive, both as an artist and in the administration of his estate, at least until 1801 when his general health deteriorated. His last years contrast starkly with those of Richard Wilson whose final years were marked by an unfortunate but unrelenting descent into abject poverty and alcoholism.One of the many welcome features of this study is a composite list of all of Thomas Jones extant paintings, running to several dozen, and their present locations, many in private collections, and five sketchbooks, as well as a full bibliography of the available secondary source materials.J. Graham JonesGellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. -- Welsh Books Council

The biography of Welsh eighteenth-century landscape painter Thomas Jones (1742-1803). Following in the footsteps of his master Richard Wilson, he travelled to Italy in 1776 and spent six-and-a-half years there; first in Rome among English artists; then in Naples where he was welcomed into the local artistic milieu. The book traces the development of his career from boyhood until his return to England in 1783. It then considers in detail his life and work as a gentleman farmer from 1787, when he inherited the family estate in Radnorshire, until his death in 1803. As he was the first British artist to write his memoirs, the penultimate chapter is devoted to what he achieved as a writer. -- Publisher: Y Lolfa For the first time we now have a comprehensive, throroughly researched and well written biography of one of our foremost landscape artists from the eighteenth century, Thomas Jones, Pencerrig, born of staunch yeoman stock to parents who produced sixteen children. Three portraits of Thomas Jones have survived. With composite skill and imaginative insight, Richard Veasey has brought together in this fine study the various disparate strands of Jones's interesting life and diverse achievements. Thomas Jones was to some extent 're-discovered' as a celebrated landscape artist during the 1950s when the Pencerrig estate was broken up and sold off, and many of his paintings were put up for sale by the family. He also achieved a new-found fame as a result of the publication of his revealing memoirs by the Walpole Society, and academic articles on his life and work, notably by Professor Prys Morgan, began to appear in print. A major retrospective exhibition was prepared in 2003. We are able to read here fascinating details of the remarkably speedy build up of an extensive estate originally based on Trefonnen near Llandrindod. Originally destined for a career in the established church, Thomas Jones duly graduated from Jesus College, Oxford, where he ran up considerable debts, but the death of his supporter John Hope, his great uncle, saw him devote his life to art thereafter. His artistic output was substantial and embraced sketches in pencil, oil and water colour as well as landscape paintings on a grand scale. Jones's career as a painter, first at London, then for six and a half years within Italy, is delineated prior to his migration to Wales in the year 1787 when, on the death of his elder brother, he came into possession of the extensive Pencerrig estate in Radnorshire which saw Thomas Jones assume the life of a Welsh country squire for the rest of his days, developing the productive capacity of the Pencerrig estate and much enhancing its natural beauty. He developed a keen concern for the welfare of his estate workers, many of whom lived in relative penury, and for the well-being of the wider community. In 1791 Jones was appointed High Sheriff of Radnorshire, and the following year he was selected to be a magistrate. He threw himself into his newfound duties with great gusto, assuming responsibility for an array of landscaping projects on the extensive estate, but also continuing to devote himself to his painting, truly his first love, whenever possible. During the 1790s he devoted himself to the articulate penning of his memoirs which, although rather episodic in structure, depicted a life of extraordinary experiences at London and then Rome and Naples, and include several extended, story-like passages, displaying a talented literary bent. Indeed, his later careers and end products as a writer and landscape painter run in parallel. The memoirs are nourished by his retention of several paintings which he made in Italy and which reminded him of a life which had by then come to an end - 'So painting and writing became interactive and complementary processes, enabling him to recall, relive and recreate the past within the present.' Several significant source materials were available to the biographer. As well as the detailed memoirs which give his outspoken views on life and many of his contemporaries, there are the Italian Account Book, 1780-83, which Jones kept while at Naples together with his partner Maria, and the General Day Book, 1788-97, devoted to daily life at Pencerrig, some notebooks kept by him, a quantity of correspondence, some legal documents deriving from the Pencerrig estate, and his will. All have been quarried here to give us a pretty complete picture of Jones's everyday life, his artistic accomplishments (some of which are reproduced here as most attractive plates), and his role as a mid-Wales country squire in charge of his extensive estate to which he obviously devoted himself with great dedication and pride. As is shown with clarity in this fine study, Jones contributed to be productive, both as an artist and in the administration of his estate, at least until 1801 when his general health deteriorated. His last years contrast starkly with those of Richard Wilson whose final years were marked by an unfortunate but unrelenting descent into abject poverty and alcoholism. One of the many welcome features of this study is a composite list of all of Thomas Jones extant paintings, running to several dozen, and their present locations, many in private collections, and five sketchbooks, as well as a full bibliography of the available secondary source materials. -- J. Graham Jones @ www.gwales.com

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