Naples
Thomas Jones (artist) worked in  which location from 1780 to 1783?
Thomas Jones ( artist ) Thomas Jones ( 26 September 1742 – 29 April 1803 ) was a Welsh landscape painter . He was a pupil of Richard Wilson and was best known in his lifetime as a painter of Welsh and Italian landscapes in the style of his master . However , Joness reputation grew in the 20th century when more unconventional works by him , not originally intended for exhibition , came to light . Most notable among these is a series of views of Naples which he painted from 1782 to 1783 . By breaking with the conventions of classical landscape painting in favour of direct observation , they look forward to the work of Camille Corot and the Barbizon School in the 19th century . His autobiography , Memoirs of Thomas Jones of Penkerrig , went unpublished until 1951 but is now recognised as an important source of information on the 18th-century art world . Biography . Early life and career . Thomas Jones was born in Trefonnen in Cefnllys , Radnorshire , the second of sixteen children to the landowner Thomas Jones of Trefonnen and his wife , Hannah . His formative years were spent on his fathers estate at Pencerrig near Builth Wells ; thus he is often referred to as Thomas Jones of Pencerrig to differentiate him from others of the same name . He was educated at Christ College , Brecon , and later at a school kept by Jenkin Jenkins at Llanfyllin in Montgomeryshire , before going to Oxford in 1759 to study at Jesus College . His university education was funded by a maternal uncle who , contrary to Joness own wishes , hoped for him to enter the church . Jones dropped out of Oxford after this uncle’s death in 1761 and began to pursue his preferred career as an artist . Jones moved to London and enrolled at William Shipleys drawing school in November 1761 . Despite attending the life class at St Martins Lane Academy , he remained unconfident of his ability to draw figures convincingly , and in 1763 he persuaded the leading landscape painter of the day ( and fellow Welshman ) Richard Wilson to take him on as a pupil . A high-spirited youth , Jones recorded in his journal that he and two rowdy fellow pupils were once rebuked by their master with the words , Gentlemen , this is not the way to rival Claude . In 1765 Jones began to exhibit at the Society of Artists ( the forerunner of the Royal Academy ) . From 1769 onwards his landscapes began to adopt the grand manner , becoming settings for scenes in history , literature or mythology . His frequent collaborator on these works was John Hamilton Mortimer , who painted the figures . One of his best-known works from this period is The Bard ( Cardiff ) , based on the poem by Thomas Gray . The 1770s were a successful period for Jones ; he was elected a fellow of the Society of Artists in 1771 and served as the society’s director in 1773–4 . This period also saw the beginning of Jones’s unconventional habit of producing small landscape sketches in oils on paper for his own amusement . Italy . Jones embarked on an eagerly anticipated trip to Italy in September 1776 . The works produced there departed significantly from the example of his master , particularly in his watercolour paintings , where he developed a distinctive palette of varying shades of blue . Jacob More , John Robert Cozens and Thomas Banks were among the fellow expatriate artists with whom Jones was friendly . His first commission in Italy was a landscape entitled Lake Albano – Sunset for the Earl-Bishop of Derry , who became Joness most important patron . Jones made his first visit to Naples in September 1778 , staying there for five months . He returned to Rome for a time , living in a house near the Spanish Steps built by Salvator Rosa . He took on a Danish widow called Maria Moncke as his Maid Servant in April 1779 , eloping with her to Naples a year later . Then the largest city in Italy , Naples promised more opportunities for patronage than had Rome , and Jones sought the patronage of the British Ambassador Sir William Hamilton in particular . Maria gave birth to two daughters in Naples , Anna Maria ( in 1780 ) and Elizabetha ( in 1781 ) . Return from Italy and retirement . Upon hearing of his fathers death in 1782 , Jones , who after six years in Italy was becoming restless and homesick , returned to Britain . He set off for London with Maria , Anna and Elizabetha on a Swedish brig in August 1783 . He arrived the following November only to find many of his possessions destroyed by damp , including all his painted studies from nature . In London Jones attempted to revive his career as a painter , but he had less impetus to do so as an annual income of £300 was left to him by his father . Although he exhibited ten works at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1798 , by 1785 he felt that his artistic career was over . In his later years Jones felt increasingly himself drawn back to Wales , especially his beloved Pencerrig . He inherited the estate in 1787 , on the death of his brother Major John Jones without issue . With his new-found financial security Thomas Jones finally married Maria Moncke on 16 September 1789 ( though his devout mother also influenced the decision ) . The wedding was held at St Pancras Church in London . Jones took an active interest in his estate , using his sketchbook to record new agricultural developments . In 1791 , he even wrote a poem entitled Petraeia about his love for Pencerrig . ( Cerrig , meaning stone in Welsh , translates into Greek as petra. ) 1791 was also the year when he became High Sheriff of Radnorshire . Thomas Jones died in 1803 ; the cause of death was angina pectoris . He was buried at the family chapel at Caebach , Llandrindod Wells . Likenesses . - Giuseppe Marchi ( c . 1735–1808 ) , Portrait of Thomas Jones , 1768 . - Francesco Renaldi ( 1755–fl . 1798 ) Portrait of Thomas Jones and his Family , 1797 . Further reading . - Richard Veasey , Thomas Jones Pencerrig – Artist , Traveller , Country Squire , y Lolfa , ( 2017 ) - A . Sumner , G . Smith ( ed. ) , Thomas Jones ( 1742–1803 ) An Artist Rediscovered [ exhibition catalogue , National Museum Cardiff ] ( 2003 ) - F . W . Hawcroft , Travels In Italy 1776–1783 based On The Memoirs Of Thomas Jones [ exhibition catalogue , University of Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery ] ( 1988 ) - J . Gere , Thomas Jones An Eighteenth-Century Conundrum , in Apollo ( 1970 June ) - Thomas Jones , Memoirs of Thomas Jones , Penkerrig , Radnorshire , 1803 , ed . P . Oppe , in The Thirty-Second Volume of the Walpole Society ; 1946–8 . External links . - Website of Thomas Jones exhibition at the National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth ( 2003 ) . Scans and transcripts of the National Librarys holdings related to Jones , including his sketchbook and the Memoirs . ( Accessed 14 September 2007. ) - Entry for Thomas Jones on Welsh Biography Online - Paintings by Thomas Jones in the National Gallery , London , including several of his open-air oil sketches from Italy - Thomas Jones at WikiGallery.org