Thomas Jones, 1742–1803, British, active in Italy (1776–83)
Title:
View of the Campi Flegrei from the Camaldolese Convent near Naples
Date:
1783
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
50 x 71 1/2 inches (127 x 181.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2008.19
Gallery Label:
Following in the footsteps of his teacher Richard Wilson, Thomas Jones traveled to Italy in 1776. In 1780 he moved from Rome to Naples and remained there until he returned home in 1783. This painting, a view of the volcanic fields outside Naples, was commissioned by Sir William Hamilton, the celebrated antiquarian, volcanologist, and English envoyextraordinary to the Spanish court at Naples. Hamilton visited Jones’s studio in the summer of 1782 and chose the subject carefully, having recently published his own account of the volcanic fields. Hamilton had only made a partial payment for the picture when he left Naples for London in the spring of 1783; and Jones himself departed for home in the summer of that same year, bringing the painting with him for exhibition. For unknown reasons, it seems the painting was never fully paid for by Hamilton, and it was long thought to have been lost until its recent rediscovery. Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)