Thomas Jones - A Wall in Naples [c.1782]

Thomas Jones - A Wall in Naples [c.1782], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The subject is a wall, pitted with scaffolding holes and apparently stained with the passage of water to the left of the balcony. It is one of a series of remarkable and original plein-air oil sketches on paper, produced by Jones while living in Naples. Like his other views, it has the appearance of an image observed and recorded from the window or roof of his lodgings. To entirely dispense with the usual compositional props of the conventional classical landscape was highly unusual. In doing so, Jones (1742 – 1803) introduced new possibilities for landscape depiction, which would be thoroughly explored and developed in the following century.

[Oil on paper laid on canvas, 11.4 x 16 cm]