The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (241 page)
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Johnson , Cornelius
(Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen )
(Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen )
(1593–1661).
Anglo-Dutch portrait painter born in London of Dutch parents. He perhaps trained in Holland, and he settled there in 1643, but he worked mainly in London, where he had an extensive practice. Johnson was at his best when working on a fairly small scale, showing a sensitive gift for characterization.
Anglo-Dutch portrait painter born in London of Dutch parents. He perhaps trained in Holland, and he settled there in 1643, but he worked mainly in London, where he had an extensive practice. Johnson was at his best when working on a fairly small scale, showing a sensitive gift for characterization.
Johnston , Frank
.
.
Jones , Allen
(1937– ).
British painter, printmaker, sculptor, and designer, one of the most committed exponents of
Pop art
. Although he has worked primarily as a painter, printmaker, and designer, he is best known to the public for a distinctive type of sculpture in which figures of women—more or less life-size, dressed in fetishistic clothing, and with what Jones calls ‘high definition female parts’—double as pieces of furniture; for example, a woman on all fours supporting a sheet of glass on her back becomes a coffee table, and a standing figure with outstretched hands becomes a hatstand. He began making such sculptures in the late 1960s and was still producing them in the 1990s, although in a manner that he calls ‘less aggressive’ and ‘easier to take’ (they have come in for a good deal of criticism for alleged demeaning of women as sex objects; an article in the feminist journal
Spare Rib
in 1973 suggested that they expressed a castration complex). His work as a designer has included sets and costumes for the erotic review
Oh! Calcutta!
(1969).
British painter, printmaker, sculptor, and designer, one of the most committed exponents of
Pop art
. Although he has worked primarily as a painter, printmaker, and designer, he is best known to the public for a distinctive type of sculpture in which figures of women—more or less life-size, dressed in fetishistic clothing, and with what Jones calls ‘high definition female parts’—double as pieces of furniture; for example, a woman on all fours supporting a sheet of glass on her back becomes a coffee table, and a standing figure with outstretched hands becomes a hatstand. He began making such sculptures in the late 1960s and was still producing them in the 1990s, although in a manner that he calls ‘less aggressive’ and ‘easier to take’ (they have come in for a good deal of criticism for alleged demeaning of women as sex objects; an article in the feminist journal
Spare Rib
in 1973 suggested that they expressed a castration complex). His work as a designer has included sets and costumes for the erotic review
Oh! Calcutta!
(1969).
Jones , David
(1895–1974).
British painter, engraver, and writer. A convert to Roman Catholicism in 1921, he met Eric
Gill
in 1922 and under his influence achieved a sense of purpose (his studies at the Camberwell School of Art, 1909–15, had left him, as he said, ‘completely muddle-headed as to the function of art in general’). Gill not only introduced him to the craft of engraving on wood, but also guided him to a conception of art that rejected the current concern with formal properties in favour of an art that aspired to reveal universal and symbolic truths behind the appearance of things. He worked mainly in pencil and watercolour, his subjects including landscape, portraits, still life, animals, and imaginative themes; Arthurian legend was one of his main inspirations. As a writer he is best known for
In Parenthesis
(1937), a long work of mixed poetry and prose on the subject of the First World War (in which he had fought). T. S. Eliot declared this to be a work of genius and it was awarded the Hawthornden Prize. After the Second World War Jones retired to Harrow and devoted himself mainly to calligraphic inscriptions in the Welsh language (he was of Welsh extraction). His work is well represented in the Tate Gallery.
British painter, engraver, and writer. A convert to Roman Catholicism in 1921, he met Eric
Gill
in 1922 and under his influence achieved a sense of purpose (his studies at the Camberwell School of Art, 1909–15, had left him, as he said, ‘completely muddle-headed as to the function of art in general’). Gill not only introduced him to the craft of engraving on wood, but also guided him to a conception of art that rejected the current concern with formal properties in favour of an art that aspired to reveal universal and symbolic truths behind the appearance of things. He worked mainly in pencil and watercolour, his subjects including landscape, portraits, still life, animals, and imaginative themes; Arthurian legend was one of his main inspirations. As a writer he is best known for
In Parenthesis
(1937), a long work of mixed poetry and prose on the subject of the First World War (in which he had fought). T. S. Eliot declared this to be a work of genius and it was awarded the Hawthornden Prize. After the Second World War Jones retired to Harrow and devoted himself mainly to calligraphic inscriptions in the Welsh language (he was of Welsh extraction). His work is well represented in the Tate Gallery.
Jones , Inigo
(1573–1652).
English architect, stage designer, draughtsman, and painter. Jones was one of the greatest of English architects and certainly the most influential, introducing a pure classical style based on the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio to a country where
Renaissance
influence had previously been fairly superficial. It was not until he was in his 40s, however, that he showed his genius as an architect, and the first known mention of him as an artist is as a ‘picture maker’ in 1603. No paintings certainly by him are known, but his drawings survive in large numbers (the finest collection is at Chatsworth). They are mainly costume and scenery designs for the court masques, on which he worked from 1605 to 1640, and in which he introduced movable scenery and the proscenium arch into England. Inigo's lively and fluent style as a draughtsman reflects his two visits to Italy (
c.
1600 and 1613–14), the second of them accompanying the great collector the Earl of
Arundel
. He advised Arundel on the purchase of Italian antiques while developing his own knowledge of Italian and
antique
architecture, and his knowledge as well as his skills gave him immense prestige in England at the courts of James I and Charles I. His principal collaborator in the masques was the formidable Ben Jonson , with whom he had a running feud about the rival claims of words and spectacle. Few of Jones's buildings survive in anything like their original state. The most important are the Queen's House at Greenwich (1616–35) and the Banqueting House in Whitehall (1619–22), with its painted ceiling by
Rubens
.
English architect, stage designer, draughtsman, and painter. Jones was one of the greatest of English architects and certainly the most influential, introducing a pure classical style based on the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio to a country where
Renaissance
influence had previously been fairly superficial. It was not until he was in his 40s, however, that he showed his genius as an architect, and the first known mention of him as an artist is as a ‘picture maker’ in 1603. No paintings certainly by him are known, but his drawings survive in large numbers (the finest collection is at Chatsworth). They are mainly costume and scenery designs for the court masques, on which he worked from 1605 to 1640, and in which he introduced movable scenery and the proscenium arch into England. Inigo's lively and fluent style as a draughtsman reflects his two visits to Italy (
c.
1600 and 1613–14), the second of them accompanying the great collector the Earl of
Arundel
. He advised Arundel on the purchase of Italian antiques while developing his own knowledge of Italian and
antique
architecture, and his knowledge as well as his skills gave him immense prestige in England at the courts of James I and Charles I. His principal collaborator in the masques was the formidable Ben Jonson , with whom he had a running feud about the rival claims of words and spectacle. Few of Jones's buildings survive in anything like their original state. The most important are the Queen's House at Greenwich (1616–35) and the Banqueting House in Whitehall (1619–22), with its painted ceiling by
Rubens
.
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