Balcony and Seascape

The present work is one of a series that Jones executed depicting the view from the veranda of the cottage that his parents rented at Portslade near Hove. He wrote that it was, 'at high tide literally like a ship in the sea ... one felt very much surrounded by water'. He was fascinated by the sea and was inspired by the works by Turner that he saw on visits to the Tate Gallery with Kenneth Clark. Nicolette Gray comments, 'The later Portslade paintings are almost always framed by the same partition in the foreground or at the side, and by the cast-iron supports which terminate at the top in outward moving curves ... These paintings are some of David Jones's most remarkable works. he reckoned that the sea was for him an important influence' (see The Paintings of David Jones, Hatfield and London, 1989, pp. 31-2).

In this important series of works Jones demonstrated his expertise in the medium of watercolour and he was able to use the terrace in the foreground as a compostional tool to provide a framing structure to the work and a view through to the sea beyond. The same distinctive supporting column also appears in other works from this series, including The Terrace, 1929 (Tate Gallery).