Raymond Ray-Jones
(1886 - 1942)
Lamp-light (E.I.P), mid-1920s
£3,200
Sold
Raymond Ray-Jones (1886 - 1942)
Signed in pencil,
Etching on laid paper, watermarked F.J. Head & Co.
Size:
Height – 33cm
Width – 24.7cm
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.258.
Considered to be the artist’s greatest print, the self-portrait wearing a hat was exhibited at the Seventh Exhibition of Modern Masters of Etching at the Leicester Galleries in 1922, at which all impressions were sold out on the first day. The work was described as “one of the finest etched portraits of contemporary times”.
Prints of the self-portrait are held by the National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This work has the unusual date of 1915-1921, having been started years before it was completed.
We are grateful to Michael Campbell for assistance.
Painter and printmaker, born at Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. His first position following his formative school years was in the drawing office of the National Gas and Oil Engine Company, Ashton and simultaneously he took drawing classes at Heginbottom School of Art, Ashton-under-Lyne. He won a scholarship to the RCA, London where his tutors included Gerald Moira and Frank Short, 1907-11. Ray-Jones furthered his studies in Paris when he entered the studio of Jean Paul Laurens at the Acad mie Julian, Paris in 1911. In Paris, he was awarded prizes and medals for his work.
Raymond Jones worked under his given name up to 1913, and following this, all his works are listed under Raymond Ray-Jones. The name change has caused a degree of confusion, and it is not clear in many catalogues and lists that the two names relate to the same artist. This point is illustrated in the Royal Academy’s exhibitor lists where he is catalogued, separately, as ‘JONES, Raymond’ and ‘JONES, R Ray’, both on the same page. He exhibited at the RA, RE, Leicester Galleries and NEAC and in 1914 was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. Ray-Jones’ works were exhibited extensively in the UK and overseas, in places as far apart as Dresden, Toronto, Sydney and Dunedin, New Zealand. In 1920 he was a founder member of the Society of Graphic Art and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1926. In the early 1930’s Ray-Jones was living in Carbis Bay, Cornwall and was elected a member of the STISA, 1933-35. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Ashmolean, Oxford, BM, V&A, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Swedish Royal collection. An exhibition of his work was held in 1992 at the Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Stalybridge.
With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk
