Vicino Chambéry, in Savoia

34,6 x 56,5 cm

Olio su carta incollato su tela

«near CHAMBERI in Savoy. T. IONES N° XVII»

Il passaggio di Thomas Jones da Chambéry, e dai suoi dintorni, si colloca il 1 novembre 1776, come si desume leggendo i suoi diari:

Friday ist November Set off at 5 in the Morning – pleasant Country, woody with plantations of Wallnut Trees. An Uneven Road very large Oaks, Poplar & Chessnut, at 9 passed through Pont de beauvoisin the frontier Town – part in France & part in Savoy – Women wear large Straw hats. The Road led round a large Precipice with a Wall on one Side, got to …. by ½ after 11 – dined miserably, set off at 2 and travelled through a pass cut with immense labour thro a Rocky Mountain by Victor Amadeus as an Inscription on a handsome Monument on the Road Side informed us – the Road very romantic all the way from hence to Chambery where we arrived by 6 in the Ev’g – the Weather all this day cold & foggy – This is the Capital of the Savoy – The houses in this mountainous Country have all steep roofs as in the North of France & Germany, many built of wood and the floors boarded as in England – whereas in France & Italy the floors are laid with Brick or Stones – at the Inn at Chambery pretty goodhumord Girls – pewter plates & Dishes – and fine large Candles at the meanest Inns all throughtout Savoy – The Cattle very small, as about Lyons & harnesd much in the same manner –

(P. Oppé, Memoirs of Thomas Jones: Penkerrig Radnorshire 1803, «The Walpole Society», xxxii, pp. 1-143: 43-44)

Caso molto raro nella storia dell’arte, è possibile seriare con grande precisione, quasi giorno per giorno, i dipinti di Thomas Jones eseguiti in Savoia. Il giorno successivo l’artista è infatti a Montmélian e realizza un altro dipinto, passato nel 2015 da Lowell Libson.