Near Chambéry, Savoy

34,6 x 56,5 cm

Oil on paper glued onto canvas

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

Thomas Jones passed through Chambéry and its surroundings on November 1, 1776, as can be deduced from his diaries:

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)

A very rare case in art history, it is possible to sequence Thomas Jones’ paintings executed in Savoy with great precision, almost day by day. The following day, the artist was in Montmélian, where he produced another painting, which was sold by Lowell Libson in 2015.