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
Looking Together
These 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.
Observation
-
Description
-
Interpretation
-
Connection
Observation
Approach 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.
Where is the
figure in relation to
the building?
Description
Describe the work as a group to establish an understanding
of what is being seen.
What lines and
shapes do you see in
this drawing?
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
By looking closely at this
painting, can you describe
the brushstrokes?
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 is implied by the way these
two figures are interacting?
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
What overall mood
is conveyed in this
photograph?
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.
How does this painting
make you feel?
Connection
Why do you think the
artist used these found
objects together to
create this sculpture?
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
Do you like this
painting?
Cultural Changes and World Events
Artwork by different artists
Summary
Toward the end of the discussion of each work,
bring together the various threads of conversation,
summarizing and synthesizing the points you have
talked about.
How does this drawing
of a landscape compare
to the painting next
to it that depicts the
same scene?
Exhibition Overview
T
his 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.
About the Artist
Walter David Jones
(1895 - 1974)
B
orn 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
David Jones in 1927, reproduced from the frontispiece of
Douglas Cleverdon, The Engravings of David Jones, Clover
Hill Editions, London, 1981
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 woodengraver can be seen in the three commissions
he received from the Golden Cockerel Press;
Gulliver’s Travels in 1925, The Book of Jonah
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
Look
Look at a selection of wood-engravings and
paintings by David Jones before your visit.
Use the links and books below for reference.
What is a gallery?
Discuss what a gallery is and what is
special about looking at original artwork in
comparison to a reproduction.
Explore
Links to explore before you visit
Who are galleries for?
BBC/ Your Paintings
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/
paintings/search/painted_by/david-jones_artists
Read
Gray, 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 Texts
Jones, David, In Parenthesis, Faber and
Faber, republished 2010
Jones, David, The Anathemata, Faber and
Faber, republished 2010
Old Testament Stories: Book of Jonah
Ask about any other galleries or museums
they have been to and what they saw there?
Words and ideas to investigate
Art Techniques
Drawing
Wood-engraving
Copper-engraving
Oil Painting
Watercolour
Lettering /
Inscriptions
Portraiture
Landscape
Seascapes
Still life
Animal drawings
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner
Art Movements/
Artists
Cézanne
Italian Renaissance
paintings
Eric Gill
Winifred Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
(1920s)
First World War artists and poets
Roman Catholicism terms and references
Arthurian Legends
Malory, Thomas, Le Morte d’Arthur
Think like a Curator
The 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?
Key Themes: A Town Child’s Journey
F
rom 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, 1931
Oil on canvas
Private collection
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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
Further Discussion Ideas
• How does this painting make you feel
about Jones ?
PSHE: How we see and portray ourselves
can be revealing of our beliefs, values and
self-identity.
• How would you depict yourself in a
self-portrait?
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, 1929-30
Drypoint
Private Collection
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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
• What emotions are conveyed in this
picture?
Art/Drama: The story of the Nativity is
well known and has been represented in
many different ways.
• What do you think the picture gains
or lacks from being a black and white,
linear etching?
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
B
etween 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-yffin, 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
Hill Pasture, Capel-y-ffin, 1926, Pencil, watercolour and
chalk, Private Collection
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
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.
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.
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
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 Saliesde-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 newfound ease with colour and contour informed his
paintings when he returned to England.
Animals Approaching the Ark, from The Chester Play of the
Deluge, 1927, Wood engraving, Private Collection
Animals Entering the Ark, from The Chester Play of the
Deluge, 1927, Wood engraving, Private Collection
Work in Focus: Capel-y-ffin, 1926-7
Watercolour and gouache
Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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.
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.
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.
Further Discussion Ideas:
• 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,
1926
Wood engraving
Private Collection
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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’.
Further Discussion Ideas:
• 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?
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.
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
B
ack 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.
Syphon and Salver, 1930, Oil on board, Amgueddfa
Cymru / National Museum of Wales
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
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 crosshatched areas’. The fluent line of these copperengravings 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), 1932
Oil on canvas
Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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, broadbrush 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.
Further Discussion Ideas:
• Think about the colours and
brushstrokes used in this painting.
• Do you think it is a good portrait?
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.
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,1929
Pencil and Watercolour
Private collection
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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?
Further Discussion Ideas:
• How do you think Jones sees his own
creative space? Can you image him
working at the table?
Art: Set up your own creative space, what
would you have in it?
Key Themes: Wounded Knight
T
he 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
Petra im Rosenhag, 1931, Pencil, watercolour and gouache,
Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
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.
Work in Focus: Wounded Knight, 1929–30
Drypoint
Private Collection
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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.
Further Discussion Ideas:
• 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?
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.
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, 1940-41
Pencil, ink and watercolour
Tate
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
Try to describe what is happening in this picture
Aphrodite, 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.
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.
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
Further Discussion Ideas:
• 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
I
n 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, 19478, which is richly layered with symbolism.
Flora in Calix-Light, 1950, Pencil and watercolour, Kettle’s
Yard, University of Cambridge
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.
Laetare Sunday, Thrush, 1948, Chalk and watercolour, Pallant
House Gallery (Kearley Bequest through The Art Fund, 1985)
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
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 watercolour
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
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
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.’
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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, 1959-67
Pencil, watercolour and gouache
Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum of Wales
Look + Discuss
Observation - Description - Interpretation - Connection
Try to tell the story depicted in this painting
The 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.
Further Discussion Ideas:
• Think about the colours and composition.
How much does this tell you about the
emotional narrative of the scene?
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.
Drama: Re-enact this story, think about
the themes involved.
Endnotes
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13
Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.19
ibid., p.113
Bankes, Ariane and Hills, Paul, The Art of David Jones Vision and Memory, Pallant House Gallery in
association with Lund Humphries, 2015, p.18
ibid., p.39
ibid., p.40
ibid., p22
ibid., p.49
ibid., p.70
Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.60-61
ibid., p.147
ibid., p.151
Gray, Nicolete, The Paintings of David Jones, Lund Humphries in association with Tate Gallery, London,
1989, p.43
Hills, Paul, David Jones, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1981, p.60-61
References and Connections
Exhibition 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 handheld 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, 192628, 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 (18781951) 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 Connections
The 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 fullpage 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 Connections
Helen 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 GaudierBrzeska, 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, 1912
Curated by Roger Fry, this was the second
of two exhibitions that brought the work of
contemporary European artists to England. It
References and Connections
included 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 floralpatterned 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 Weller
Designed by Louise Bristow
Natalie Franklin, Learning Programme Manager
[email protected], 01243 770839
Telephone 01243 774557
[email protected]
www.pallant.org.uk
9 North Pallant, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 1TJ