Alfred Janes
Encyclopedia
Alfred George Janes was a Welsh artist
, who is also remembered as one of The Kardomah Gang; a group of bohemian
friends that included the poets Dylan Thomas
and Vernon Watkins
, and the composer Daniel Jones
.
, Swansea city centre
. He attended Swansea Grammar School
and then the Swansea College of Art. At the age of 16, he exhibited at the 1928 National Eisteddfod
, held in Treorchy
that year. Three years later, while he was still concentrating on still life
s and portraits, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Arthur Lovell, the Mayor of Swansea. In 1931, he painted a portrait of a 17 year old Mervyn Levy
, thought to have been the painting that won him a scholarship to study art at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Although he didn't complete the three year course, his drawing tutors included Tom Monnington
. While in London, he shared several flats
in and around Chelsea
with contemporaries; at first with William Scott
, the Scots-Irish artist Janes met at the Royal Academy Schools.
Swansea friends that included poets Dylan Thomas
, Charles Fisher
, John Prichard and Vernon Watkins
, composer and linguist Daniel Jones
, artist Mervyn Levy
and "Marxist scholar" Bert Trick. Collectively, they became known as The Kardomah Gang or The Kardomah Boys, named after the Kardomah Café, in Castle Street, Swansea, where they would meet. The Café stood opposite the offices of the South Wales Daily Post
, to which Fisher and Thomas were apprenticed
in 1930, after they had left school.
Although Janes and Thomas had been to the same school, they were separated by a few years (Thomas was born in 1914), so didn't know each other until after their schooldays. They first met in 1932, through their mutual friend Daniel Jones. In 1934, Janes, Thomas and Levy shared a flat at number five, Redcliffe Street, Earls Court
and, subsequently, at Coleherne Road, Earls Court. In one of a series of radio broadcasts in the early 1950s, Dylan Thomas described how they shared rooms while Janes was "a student at the Royal Academy of Arts". He went on to describe Janes' paintings in detail and that: "After many Academy awards, and several paintings hung in London galleries, he returned to Swansea to work and experiment, which were synonymous." Janes created three portraits of Thomas. The first, painted in Coleherne Road, in 1934, is oil on canvass. The method Janes used during this period was to cut lines into the paint with his pen-knife, to provide relief and focus. When Janes decided to return to Swansea in 1936, he left his accumulated works behind. Most are now lost, however, some of his paintings and drawings, including the portrait of Dylan Thomas, had been acquired by Cedric Morris
and Augustus John
, to form part of an exhibition of Welsh artists held in Cardiff. The portrait was purchased by the National Museum of Wales in 1935; it remains a part of their collection.
Later, he "...complicated the technique by marking a polygonal grid on to the board before painting the subject, and then retracing and incising it into the finished painting. In this way he was able to achieve a unique crystalline brilliance of image." The second portrait is held by the University of Wales
, Swansea. The last is pen and ink on paper, drawn around 1964; it forms part of the permanent collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
, Swansea. He also produced portraits of Vernon Watkins; James Govier, the painter, etcher, and engraver; William Grant Murray, the painter and head of Swansea school of Art; and Gwillym Thomas, the ceramic artist.
Welsh art
Welsh art refers to the traditions in the visual arts associated with Wales and its people. Wales cannot claim to have been a major centre of the visual arts at any point, and Welsh art is essentially a regional variant of the forms and styles of the rest of the British Isles; a very different...
, who is also remembered as one of The Kardomah Gang; a group of bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
friends that included the poets Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
and Vernon Watkins
Vernon Watkins
Vernon Phillips Watkins , was a British poet, and a translator and painter. He was a close friend of Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English"....
, and the composer Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones (composer)
Daniel Jenkyn Jones OBE was a composer of classical music, who worked in Britain. He used both serial and tonal techniques...
.
Early life
Janes was born on 30 June 1911, above his parents' fruit and flower shop in Castle SquareSwansea Castle
Swansea Castle was founded by Henry de Beaumont in 1106 as the caput of the lordship of Gower, in Swansea, Wales.-History:The original castle seems to have been a sub-rectangular/oval enclosure overlooking the River Tawe on the east, surrounded on the north, west and south sides by a larger...
, Swansea city centre
Swansea city centre
Swansea city centre in Swansea, Wales, contains the main shopping, leisure and nightlife district in Swansea. The city centre covers much of the Castle ward including the area around Oxford Street, Castle Square, and the Quadrant Shopping Centre; Alexandra Road, High Street, Wind Street and the...
. He attended Swansea Grammar School
Bishop Gore School
The Bishop Gore School is a secondary school in Swansea in south Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore , Bishop of Waterford and Lismore...
and then the Swansea College of Art. At the age of 16, he exhibited at the 1928 National Eisteddfod
National Eisteddfod of Wales
The National Eisteddfod of Wales is the most important of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales.- Organisation :...
, held in Treorchy
Treorchy
Treorchy is a village, although it used to be and still has characteristics of a town, in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, lying in the Rhondda Fawr valley...
that year. Three years later, while he was still concentrating on still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
s and portraits, he was commissioned to paint a portrait of Arthur Lovell, the Mayor of Swansea. In 1931, he painted a portrait of a 17 year old Mervyn Levy
Mervyn Levy
Mervyn Levy was a Welsh artist, art dealer, writer and critic. He is also known for his association with the poet Dylan Thomas as one of The Kardomah Gang....
, thought to have been the painting that won him a scholarship to study art at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Although he didn't complete the three year course, his drawing tutors included Tom Monnington
Walter Thomas Monnington
Sir Walter Thomas Monnington was an English painter. From 1918 to 1923, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and then became the Royal Academy's Rome Scholar for the next three years...
. While in London, he shared several flats
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in and around Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
with contemporaries; at first with William Scott
William Scott (artist)
William Scott was a British artist known for still life and abstract painting. He is the most internationally celebrated of 20th century Ulster painters.-Early life and education:...
, the Scots-Irish artist Janes met at the Royal Academy Schools.
The Kardomah Gang
In 1932, Janes became part of a group of bohemianBohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
Swansea friends that included poets Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, Charles Fisher
Charles Fisher (poet)
Charles Fisher was a British journalist, writer, poet and adventurer. Charles was the last surviving member of the Kardomah group, a literary and artistic circle in Swansea circa 1930, which included Dylan Thomas, Vernon Watkins and Daniel Jones.Fisher was educated at the Bishop Gore School,...
, John Prichard and Vernon Watkins
Vernon Watkins
Vernon Phillips Watkins , was a British poet, and a translator and painter. He was a close friend of Dylan Thomas, who described him as "the most profound and greatly accomplished Welshman writing poems in English"....
, composer and linguist Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones (composer)
Daniel Jenkyn Jones OBE was a composer of classical music, who worked in Britain. He used both serial and tonal techniques...
, artist Mervyn Levy
Mervyn Levy
Mervyn Levy was a Welsh artist, art dealer, writer and critic. He is also known for his association with the poet Dylan Thomas as one of The Kardomah Gang....
and "Marxist scholar" Bert Trick. Collectively, they became known as The Kardomah Gang or The Kardomah Boys, named after the Kardomah Café, in Castle Street, Swansea, where they would meet. The Café stood opposite the offices of the South Wales Daily Post
South Wales Evening Post
The South Wales Evening Post is a tabloid daily newspaper that distributed in South West Wales. The paper has three daily editions - Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire and is published by South West Wales Publications, part of the Northcliffe Media group. The current editor is...
, to which Fisher and Thomas were apprenticed
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
in 1930, after they had left school.
Although Janes and Thomas had been to the same school, they were separated by a few years (Thomas was born in 1914), so didn't know each other until after their schooldays. They first met in 1932, through their mutual friend Daniel Jones. In 1934, Janes, Thomas and Levy shared a flat at number five, Redcliffe Street, Earls Court
Earls Court
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...
and, subsequently, at Coleherne Road, Earls Court. In one of a series of radio broadcasts in the early 1950s, Dylan Thomas described how they shared rooms while Janes was "a student at the Royal Academy of Arts". He went on to describe Janes' paintings in detail and that: "After many Academy awards, and several paintings hung in London galleries, he returned to Swansea to work and experiment, which were synonymous." Janes created three portraits of Thomas. The first, painted in Coleherne Road, in 1934, is oil on canvass. The method Janes used during this period was to cut lines into the paint with his pen-knife, to provide relief and focus. When Janes decided to return to Swansea in 1936, he left his accumulated works behind. Most are now lost, however, some of his paintings and drawings, including the portrait of Dylan Thomas, had been acquired by Cedric Morris
Cedric Morris
Sir Cedric Lockwood Morris, 9th Baronet was a British artist, art teacher and plantsman. He was born in Swansea but worked mainly in East Anglia...
and Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
, to form part of an exhibition of Welsh artists held in Cardiff. The portrait was purchased by the National Museum of Wales in 1935; it remains a part of their collection.
Later, he "...complicated the technique by marking a polygonal grid on to the board before painting the subject, and then retracing and incising it into the finished painting. In this way he was able to achieve a unique crystalline brilliance of image." The second portrait is held by the University of Wales
University of Wales
The University of Wales was a confederal university founded in 1893. It had accredited institutions throughout Wales, and formerly accredited courses in Britain and abroad, with over 100,000 students, but in October 2011, after a number of scandals, it withdrew all accreditation, and it was...
, Swansea. The last is pen and ink on paper, drawn around 1964; it forms part of the permanent collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery
The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea. He also produced portraits of Vernon Watkins; James Govier, the painter, etcher, and engraver; William Grant Murray, the painter and head of Swansea school of Art; and Gwillym Thomas, the ceramic artist.
External links
- Bream - Alfred Janes c. 1935 held in the National Museum CardiffNational Museum CardiffNational Museum Cardiff is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales...
collection - Still Life With Hyacinths - Alfred Janes 1930s held in the Glynn Vivian Art GalleryGlynn Vivian Art GalleryThe Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea collection - White Hyacinths - Alfred Janes 1930s auction records
- Study for Portrait of Daniel Jones - Alfred Janes 1949 held in the Glynn Vivian Art GalleryGlynn Vivian Art GalleryThe Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea collection - Portrait of Vernon Watkins - Alfred Janes 1949 held in the Glynn Vivian Art GalleryGlynn Vivian Art GalleryThe Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea collection - Portrait of William Grant Murray - Alfred Janes c. 1951 held in the Glynn Vivian Art GalleryGlynn Vivian Art GalleryThe Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea collection - Portrait of Dylan Thomas - Alfred Janes c. 1964 held in the Glynn Vivian Art GalleryGlynn Vivian Art GalleryThe Glynn Vivian Art Gallery is the public art gallery of the city of Swansea, Wales. The gallery is situated in Alexandra Road, near Swansea railway station, opposite the old Swansea Central Library and near Swansea Central police station...
, Swansea collection - Alfred Janes - Centenary Exhibition held in the Kooywood Gallery, Cardiff