Attributed to William Jones (fl. 1738-d.1747)

William Jones is believed to have spent his early career in England, owing to the existence of four overdoors at Kimbolton Castle, signed and dated 1738. Although known as a landscape artist of Irish scenes, mainly from the engravings made by Giles King, during his time in England, Jones fell under the influence of William Hogarth (1697-1764). Several works that exhibit this influence are known, including two attributed to him in the Tate Gallery, scenes from Coley Cibber's Damon and Phillida. The only known record of this rather elusive artist's death is a sale held by Samuel Dixon, at his shop in Capel Street, Dublin in February 1747 of landscape and history paintings done 'by the late and ingenious Mr Jones'. This picture can be compared to Jones's The Fortune Teller (for which see A. Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, Ireland's Painters, New Haven and Dublin, 2002, p.76, fig. 99).