David Jones (artist-poet) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
David Jones
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| Born | Walter David Jones 1 November 1895 Brockley, Kent, England |
| Died | 28 October 1974 (aged 78) Harrow, England |
| Occupation | Poet, artist, essayist, critic |
| Literary movement | Modernism |
| Notable works | In Parenthesis (poem), The Anathemata (poem) |
| Notable awards | Order of the Companions of Honour |
Walter David Jones (born November 1, 1895 – died October 28, 1974) was a famous British painter and a modernist poet. He was known for his beautiful watercolour paintings, which often showed portraits, animals, landscapes, and religious scenes. He also created art by carving wood and painting words. Important figures like Kenneth Clark, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden believed his art and poetry were among the best of his time. David Jones's work was deeply shaped by his Christian faith and his family's Welsh background.
Contents
Biography
Early Life and Art
David Jones was born in Brockley, a part of South East London. His father, James Jones, came from a Welsh-speaking family in north Wales. However, his father was told not to speak Welsh, as it was thought it might stop him from getting a good job. James moved to London and worked as a printer. He married Alice Bradshaw, and they had three children: Harold, Alice, and David.
David showed a talent for art from a very young age. He even entered his drawings into children's art shows. He once wrote that he knew from age six that he wanted to be an artist. He didn't read easily until he was eight. By age nine, he felt a strong connection to his father's Welsh roots. He then stopped using his first name, Walter, which was more English.
In 1909, when he was 14, David started studying at the Camberwell Art School. There, he learned from A. S. Hartrick, who had worked with famous artists like Van Gogh. Hartrick introduced David to the Impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites art styles. David also took a weekly literature class, which was required at Camberwell.
World War I Experience
When the First World War began, David Jones joined the London Welsh Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in January 1915. He served on the Western Front from 1915 to 1918. He spent more time on the front lines than almost any other British writer during the war.
He was hurt at Mametz Wood and later recovered. He then returned to fight in other major battles, including Passchendaele in 1917. In 1918, he almost died from a serious illness called trench fever. He recovered in England and stayed in Ireland until the war ended. David Jones's experiences during the war became the main inspiration for his long poem, In Parenthesis.
Life in the 1920s
After the war, in 1919, David received a government grant to continue his art studies at Camberwell Art School. He then moved to the Westminster School of Art in London. There, he was taught by Walter Bayes and Bernard Meninsky. He was also influenced by Walter Sickert, a well-known artist who sometimes lectured there.
In 1921, David Jones became a Catholic. He felt the Catholic Church was "real" and liked its connection to ancient history. In 1922, he spent time at Ditchling, learning carpentry. However, he wasn't very good at it. So, he started learning wood-engraving instead. He became an illustrator, creating pictures for books like The Game and The Rosary Book.
David Jones was one of the first modern engravers to mix different engraving styles. In 1927, he joined the Society of Wood Engravers. He illustrated several books, including The Book of Jonah and Gulliver's Travels. He also created a detailed picture for a Welsh translation of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Later, he illustrated The Chester Play of the Deluge and Coleridge's famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. By 1930, eye strain forced him to stop engraving.
In 1924, David was going to marry Petra, the daughter of his friend Eric Gill. But in 1927, she ended their engagement. David was very upset, but he focused all his energy on his art. He moved back in with his parents and spent time painting seascapes and Welsh landscapes. He showed his work in London art galleries.
In 1927, David became friends with Jim Ede from the Tate Gallery. Jim helped him meet art critics and buyers. David also met the painter Ben Nicholson, who helped him join the Seven and Five Society in 1928. This group included other famous artists like Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. David was a member until 1935, when he was asked to leave because he didn't paint abstract art.
In 1928, David began writing In Parenthesis. He wanted to write a true story about his experiences in the trenches during the war, as he felt other published accounts weren't accurate.
The 1930s and Health
From 1929 to the mid-1930s, David Jones met weekly with a group of friends in Chelsea. They discussed many topics related to Catholic Christianity and culture. David shared his ideas about how a healthy society needs a balance between usefulness (efficiency) and beauty (art, truth, goodness).
David had suffered from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the war. This contributed to a serious mental health challenge in 1932. It happened after he painted and wrote a lot for four months, creating 60 large paintings and the first draft of In Parenthesis. His friends arranged a trip to Jerusalem for him, but it didn't help his condition. This health issue stopped him from painting for most of the next 16 years.
However, he was able to work on revising In Parenthesis. He read it aloud to friends, and one of them, Jim Ede, told the publisher Faber and Faber about it. The book was published in 1937 and received excellent reviews. In 1938, it won the Hawthornden Prize, a major British literary award. Even though he couldn't paint much, his visual art was shown in Chicago in 1933, Venice in 1934, and New York in 1939.
Later Life and Legacy
David Jones spent most of the Second World War in London, living through the Blitz bombings. He painted a few important pictures during this time.
In 1947, he created ten land-and-skyscapes in just one week. This burst of activity led to another mental health challenge. He received therapy, and his psychologist encouraged him to paint and write as part of his healing. This led David to create many beautiful painted inscriptions (an art form he invented) and still lifes of flowers in glass cups throughout the 1950s. In 1952, he published his second long poem, The Anathemata.
In 1954, an exhibition of his work toured Britain, visiting cities like Cardiff and London's Tate Gallery.
In 1960, David was prescribed some medications that greatly affected his creativity for 12 years. He struggled to finish some of his poems for The Sleeping Lord (1974), but he managed to complete the project after the medications were stopped in 1972. In 1974, he was given the Companion of Honour award, a very special recognition.
Death
In 1970, David Jones broke his hip in a fall. After that, he lived in a nursing home in Harrow. He was often visited by friends and passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 28, 1974. He was buried in Ladywell and Brockley Cemetery. In 1985, he was honored among 16 Great War poets at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Art
David Jones started showing his paintings in London galleries in 1919. But at first, his main public art was engraving. He quickly became a leader in bringing wood-engraving back as a true art form. He was one of the first modern engravers to mix different engraving styles. His two most famous illustrated books are The Chester Play of the Deluge (1927) and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1929). In these books, his engravings were designed to match each other and were placed in a special way within the text. David later used this same structure in his long poem, The Anathemata.
His income mainly came from his paintings, and his style changed throughout his life. He moved away from realistic art and adopted a style with thick lines and sculptural shapes. Painting the sea helped him see water and sky as connected. His watercolour paintings after 1929 are subtle and need to be looked at many times to be fully appreciated.
In the Seven and Five Society, he was influenced to paint more freely, using more color and fewer lines. After his first mental health challenge, he painted Aphrodite in Aulis and two Arthurian paintings. These paintings were full of symbols and needed to be "read" as well as viewed. He wanted to combine this symbolic work with his earlier free style. He achieved this in his painted inscriptions, which combined ancient texts with his art. Most of these inscriptions were in Latin or Welsh, because he wanted people to look at them as art, not just read them. He also combined symbolism and freedom in his still-life paintings of flowers in glass cups. David Jones's art was always changing and felt new. The art historian Kenneth Clark called him "absolutely unique, a remarkable genius."
Poetry
In Parenthesis (1937) is a long poem that tells the story of David Jones's first seven months in the trenches during World War I. It ends with the attack on Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme. The poem uses many different voices and styles, mixing verse and prose. Its rich language makes it a powerful poem.
When it was published, many reviewers, especially former soldiers, praised it highly. They said its vivid language truly showed the reality of trench warfare. The poem uses ideas from old Welsh epics, Shakespeare's Henry V, and other classic stories. It tries to be true to the experiences of soldiers. The ending, where the Queen of the Woods visits the dead, is very moving. Famous writers like W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot called it a "work of genius." W. H. Auden said it was "the greatest book about the First World War."
The Anathemata (1952) is another very long poem by David Jones. It's like a detailed study of Western culture. It goes through ancient times and history, focusing on how humans create special signs and symbols. W. H. Auden called it "probably the greatest poem of the twentieth century." David Jones himself thought it was his most important work.
David Jones also worked on other poems, some of which were published in The Sleeping Lord and Other Fragments (1974). This collection includes poems about Roman soldiers in Jerusalem during Jesus's time and poems about Celtic characters. These works explore traditional values in the face of modern war and technology. Seamus Heaney called them "extraordinary" writing. Two poems, "The Hunt" and "The Tutelar of the Place," are especially musical and lyrical. These are good poems to start with if you want to read David Jones's poetry.
Essays
David Jones also wrote essays about art, literature, religion, and history. He wrote introductions for books and gave talks on the BBC radio. These writings have been collected in books like Epoch and Artist (1959) and The Dying Gaul (1978).
Some of his most important essays include "Art and Sacrament," where he explains his ideas about culture. "Use and Sign" is a shorter explanation of these ideas. His introduction to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also very interesting. These essays help us understand his poetry and his unique way of thinking about the world.
Reputation
David Jones has gained more attention recently, especially with TV shows about World War I. Since 2014, he has been increasingly seen as a very important and original poet and visual artist of the 20th century.
His visual art is now very well-known and appreciated. Several exhibitions of his engravings, paintings, and inscriptions have shown how popular his art is. You can even see his visual works online.
For a long time, David Jones was less known as a poet. This was partly because his long poems are complex and full of references, making them hard for many people to read. Also, his publisher, Faber, didn't always list his books correctly as poetry. This meant his work was often missed by critics who were deciding which writers were important.
However, since the 1970s, experts have started to recognize the importance of his poetry. Many creative writers and poets have praised his work. T. S. Eliot called him "one of the most distinguished writers of my generation." Dylan Thomas said he wished he had done anything as good as David Jones. These famous writers show how highly David Jones's work is now regarded.
Images for kids
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David Jones - The Chapel in the Park, 1926.jpg
The Chapel in the Park, 1926
