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George Jones (6 January 1786 – 19 September 1869) was a British painter, and Keeper of the Royal Academy, most famous for his paintings of military subjects.


Life

Jones was the only son of John Jones, a
mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...
engraver. He became a student at the Royal Academy in 1801 at the early age of 15, exhibiting his first work depicting a biblical scene in 1803. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy over the next eight years. He joined the Royal Montgomery Militia; the date of his commission as captain is given as 17 February 1812. There is a possibility that he had served in the South Devon Militia as far back as 1808. His obituary states that he volunteered for active service with his company in Spain, but he was certainly was part of the army of occupation in Paris after the
Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
. After the war he resumed his art career, winning prizes and fame for his paintings of military engagements. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1822, a full member in 1824, becoming its librarian, and from 1840 to 1850 its keeper. He was the friend of Charles Turner, engraver, and of J. M. W. Turner, whose most loyal executor he became, writing a short memoir of him and painting pictures recording his gallery. Unlike the two Turners he is unaccountably not commemorated on his former residences in London by any plaque. He married Gertrude Anne Loscombe in 1844. He died in Park Square,
Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
on 19 September 1869 and is buried on the western side of
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.


Resemblance to Wellington

Jones bore a strong resemblance to his hero,
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
, and was sometimes mistaken for him. Jones was said to be very proud of his resemblance to the Duke. When Wellington was told about this he remarked, "Mistaken for me, is he? That's strange, for no one ever mistakes me for Mr. Jones". Longford, Elizabeth, ''Wellington: Pillar of State'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p.148 In fact, there is evidence that Wellington was once mistaken for Jones. When approached by a man who said "Mr Jones, I believe", Wellington replied, "if you will believe that you will believe anything."


Work


Peninsular War paintings

While it is unknown whether Jones went to Spain, he did make the acquaintance of Lieut. Gen. Paul Anderson, who had fought in the
Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
. The latter had also been a friend of the late General Sir John Moore and was present at the death of the general at the
Battle of Corunna The Battle of Corunna (or ''A Coruña'', ''La Corunna'', ''La Coruña'' or ''La Corogne''), in Spain known as Battle of Elviña, took place on 16 January 1809, when a French corps under Marshal of the Empire Jean de Dieu Soult attacked a Bri ...
. Anderson commissioned Jones to paint the burial scene and possibly two companion pieces. The artist also painted a scene of the ''
Battle of Vittoria At the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813) a British, Portuguese and Spanish army under the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, eventually leading ...
'' which is now in the Royal Collection.


Borodino and Waterloo paintings

Waterloo was particularly attractive to the artist and he exhibited no less than five paintings of the
battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
at the Royal Academy and six at the British Institution, earning the nickname 'Waterloo' Jones. His 1816 piece at the BI was for the competition for the best rendition of the battle, for which he won the second prize of 200 guineas. His presence in the latter stages of the campaign clearly helped him and he made numerous sketches of the battlefield and surroundings; some of these were used in a book entitled ''The Battle of Waterloo...By a Near Observer'' published in 1817.The Battle of Waterloo...By a Near Observer
(London: John Booth, 1817).
In 1829, Jones painted a large scene of
Borodino The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napole ...
, while from the same year came his scene entitled ''
Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
boarding the 'San Josef' at St. Vincent''.


Scinde Campaign paintings

Jones was friendly with William Napier, brother of General Sir Charles Napier, and following the victories in Scinde in 1842–1843, William asked Jones to paint a scene in support of his brother who was being criticised for supposedly creating the war to further his own ambitions. Jones painted several scenes including the Battle of Meanee, the Battle of Hydrabad, the Battle of Trukee and the destruction of the fortress at Emaum Ghur.


Crimean War paintings

The subject of the war in the Crimea appealed to Jones who exhibited two preliminary oil sketches at the Royal Academy in 1855 entitled ''The
battle of the Alma The Battle of the Alma (short for Battle of the Alma River) was a battle in the Crimean War between an allied expeditionary force (made up of French, British, and Ottoman forces) and Russian forces defending the Crimean Peninsula on 20Septemb ...
'' and '' Balaclava 1854 - conflict at the guns''. Four years later, the artist submitted another picture entitled ''The Battle of Inkermann''.


Indian Mutiny paintings

Just as the Scinde paintings were created to celebrate a general, Jones painted several scenes of the Indian Mutiny to honor Sir Colin Campbell. The first piece was entitled ''Contest in the Raptee river between the 7th Hussars, commanded by Sir W. Russell, and the Sowars''. His two major paintings depicted
Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
and
Cawnpore Kanpur or Cawnpore (Help:IPA/English, /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (Wikipedia:Media help, help·:File:Kanpur.ogg, info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one ...
.


Abyssinian Campaign

In the final year of his life, Jones produced a watercolor depicting ''The conquest and destruction of Magdala.''


References


Further reading

* * Harrington, Peter, "The Battle Paintings of George Jones, R.A. (1786-1869)," ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'', Vol. LXVII, No. 272, Winter 1989, pp. 239–252. * Harrington, Peter (1993). ''British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700-1914''. London: Greenhill. . * Hichberger, Joany, "Captain Jones of the Royal Academy," ''Turner Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 1, Summer 1983, pp. 14–20.


External links

*
Works by Jones at ArtCyclopedia


* ttp://www.royalcollection.org.uk/eGallery/maker.asp?maker=JONESG Jones at the Royal Collection
Jones at the Tate Collection

Art by George Jones at the National Portrait Gallery


* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, George 19th-century British painters British male painters Royal Academicians Keepers of the Royal Academy British war artists 1786 births 1869 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century British male artists