David Jones was a lovely man.

David Jones (British, 1895-1974)

The Lee Shore
pencil, crayon and watercolour
38 x 57 cm. (14 7/8 x 22 3/8 in.)
Painted in 1961

Footnotes

Provenance
Gifted from the Artist to Valerie Price
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Tate Gallery, David Jones, July-September 1981, cat.no.138

Literature

Jonathan Miles and Derek Shiel, David Jones: The Maker Unmade, Seren, Bridgend, 1995, p.274 (ill.)

Thomas Dilworth, David Jones, Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet, Jonathan Cape, London, 2017, pp.301-302 (col.ill)


The present work is accompanied by an explanatory letter from the artist to Valerie Price dated 1973, extensively detailing the symbolism of the work. In it he comments:

"The open casement windows were drawn direct from those windows at Northwick Lodge, the round topped [arch] in the middle was added as the drawing proceeded, as I found I wanted a further opening, I believe a ship with coloured sails can be seen through that opening"

"The high-tide & the sea has flung up over the windowsill, some stones & (I think) shells & parts of the tackle and cordage of one of the vessels smashed in the sea battle & some ill aimed or stray arrows from the battle also drive in through the casement, on the ledge of which some of Gwener's vestments has been hung out to dry"

"The Gulls as they swirl in become doves as they approach the Goddess, because the dove was one of the creatures sacred to her. As you know, Eros or Cupid, was the son of the Goddess and carried a bow that discharged arrows. I decided that his bow should be a cross-bow, & his 'arrows' would be 'bolts', hence the cross-bow left under the coverlet mixed with flowers"

"The cat at rest on the couch is because in the Nordic mythology a goddess, more or less equivalent with the classical Venus- Aphrodite, had white cats that drew her car across the blue heavens, but I don't happen to much like white cats & so I made a tabby one."

The present composition was printed in limited edition by the Curwen Press.

NB

Thomas Dilworth's book about David Jones is excellent.

self-portraits ... part v ...

edward steichen,  1902 and  

bunny yeager, 1950s

zofia kulik, 1992 and 1997

juno calypso, 2015ish to 2022ish

marina abramovic 2010ish

zanele muholi, 2019 and 2022

egon schiele, no dates yet

leon spilliaert, 1907-ish

pauline boty, 1958 and 1960-ish

gilbert and george 1988 and 1991

to be continued, as and when ...

giovanno battista tiepolo in the prado ... ( draft, to be expanded )

Giambattista Tiepolo's madonna and some angels ... remnants of dismantled altarpieces

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, assisted by his son Giovanni Domenico, worked their way together through some prestigious commissions in Italy and Austria ... eventually, they were persuaded to travel to Madrid and work for the Spanish King, Carlos III, arriving in 1762 after an epic journey and working non-stop until GB dropped dead in 1770

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Domenico_Tiepolo

it seems that the Tiepolo's energetic images didn't quite match the King's theological expectations and were very quickly replaced by those of an artist named Mengs ... the explanation is set out in the Prado's website ... below

https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-immaculate-conception/8da40987-dd6b-4bb3-ab0e-4210ecb6495e

The Immaculate Conception

1767 - 1769. Oil on canvas.

This majestic image was part of a cycle of seven altarpieces commissioned in 1767 for the new royal church of San Pascual Bailón at Aranjuez, founded by Charles III in the same year. The altarpieces comprised the entire pictorial decoration of this Alcantarine Franciscan church, which was built in an austere classical style. The subjects of the altarpieces reflected some of the most important devotional practices of the Franciscan Order: devotion to the Eucharist, to the Christ Child and to the purity of the Virgin Mary. Giambattista Tiepolo`s The Immaculate Conception, 1767-69, was placed to the left of the High Altar, with his Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, 1767-69 (Museo del Prado) as its pendant on the right, and Saint Pascual Bailón adoring a vision of the Eucharist, 1767-69 (two fragments in the Museo del Prado), on the High Altar itself.

The Immaculate Conception was a cult strongly promoted by the Franciscans. Representations of this abstract idea of the purity of the Virgin Mary were conventional and familiar by the time this work was created, and paintings by Guido Reni and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo were particularly influential. In Tiepolo`s oil sketch for the Aranjuez altarpiece the femininity and humanity of Mary are emphasised, and her delicate form is supported by angels on either side. In the final altarpiece, however, the proportions have changed so that the figure of the Virgin commands more space, and the torsion of her body is accentuated so as to endow her figure with greater energy. Mary`s qualities of splendour and gravitas are akin to those of the angel bearing the Eucharist in the Saint Pascual Bailón altarpiece, and this affinity is appropriate, if not deliberate, since the Immaculate Virgin was, in effect, the first tabernacle for Christ present in the Eucharist.

The symbols in the altarpiece refer to the virtues and significance of the Virgin. She vindicates the original weakness of Eve by trampling on the serpent. The palm tree symbolises her victory and exaltation and the mirror symbolises her freedom from all stain. The crescent moon and twelve stars refer to the Apocalyptic Woman of Revelation 12:1-10, while the crescent itself is an ancient symbol of chastity. At the same time, the moon`s light derives from the sun, just as the special grace of Mary derives from the merits of Christ. The shimmering profile of an obelisk shape in the background is a further reference to traditional symbols associated with the Immaculate Conception, the Tower of David and the Tower of Ivory, with their evocations of impregnability, virginity and purity.

The Immaculate Conception and the other altarpieces then in San Pascual Bailón were removed to the adjoining convent in 1775, and were replaced with paintings by Anton Raphael Mengs, Francisco Bayeu y Subías and Mariano Salvador Maella. Tiepolo`s interpretation of the Franciscan themes clearly met with the approval of Charles III and Joaquín de Eleta, since the instructions for the replacement paintings insisted that the saints and sacred mysteries represented should not be changed. Rather, it was the freshness, modernity and naturalism of Tiepolo`s approach that was the problem - his franchezza pittorica, so admired in Venice, did not please the King and his advisers, whose eyes were attuned to the sophisticated, eclectic art of Mengs. The religious paintings of Mengs and his close followers deliberately referred to the great tradition of Bolognese classicism and were worked to a high finish, presenting a porcelain-like polished surface. In the end, this elegant and authoritative type of religious art was judged more appropriate for the restrained splendour of the King`s new church of San Pascual Bailón (W. C.: Italian Masterpieces. From Spain`s Royal Court, Museo del Prado, 2014, p. 224).

this imagining of san pascual being inspired by angels is part of the same commission as the Immaculate Conception ...

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obra-de-arte/vision-de-san-pascual-bailon/62b1f93e-b2e6-4204-a02a-681a9de29a13

Abraham and the Three Angels, c.1770

no one is quite sure who commissioned this third piece ... or if it is a remnant of some larger conception ... for myself, whenever i encountered it during my visits to the Prado, I was always shocked or startled by the central figure's elegance and beauty ... the angel's posture and facial expression convey an impression of composure, sobriety, and absolute authority despite his almost decadent beauty ... the brushwork and colouring strongly suggest all three paintings shown here were accomplished in the short space of time near the end of the artist's life ... the more I see of them, the more I marvel at the artist's subtle variations of colour and tone 

https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/abraham-and-the-three-angels/e9032f08-e060-48b5-a33b-86996227b4b3