- Artist
- Thomas Jones 1742–1803
- Medium
- Oil paint on paper on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 381 × 552 mm
frame: 450 × 622 × 54 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Mrs Jane Evan-Thomas 1974
- Reference
- T01844
Catalogue entry
Thomas Jones 1742–1803
T01844 Mount Vesuvius from Torre dell’Annunziata near Naples 1783
Not inscribed.
Oil on paper laid down on canvas, 15 x 21¾ (38 x 55.5).
Presented by Mrs Jane Evan-Thomas 1974.
Coll: The artist’s son-in-law, Thomas Thomas, thence by descent to Commander Charles Evan-Thomas, d.s.o., r.n.; his widow Mrs Jane Evan-Thomas.
Exh: Marble Hill House, Twickenham and the National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff 1970 (74).
An old inscription on the stretcher reads: ‘No 3, Mount Vesuvius from Torre dell’Annunziata near Naples’. During his years in Italy (1776–83) Jones ascended or partly ascended Vesuvius several times but only once does he appear to have approached it from Torre dell’Annunziata. He went there on 25 July 1783, shortly before leaving for England, to say farewell to his friend the Roman topographical artist Giambattista Lusieri. On 26 July, Jones records in his ‘Memoirs’, ‘we amused ourselves in walking about this interesting Country, & on the day following ascended M. Vesuvius as far as the Cultivation extended, thro’ beautiful Vineyards & villages, & Groves of Fruit & Forest Trees, and interspersed with handsom Churches and Convents—The Weather was remarkably hot—’ (ed. A. P. Oppé, ‘Memoirs of Thomas Jones’, Walpole Society, xxxii, 1951, p. 124). He returned from Torre dell’Annunziata to Naples on 31 July and set sail for England on 3 August. T01844 was presumably painted during his week’s stay at Torre.
Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1972–1974, London 1975.
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