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Season 2019 / 2020 – Talk 28 – Owen Jones
Owen Jones is a talk by Alan Freeland about this versatile Victorian architect and designer. He helps pioneer modern colour theory. Owen Jones is responsible for the interior decoration and arrangement of the exhibits in the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition.
Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery.
Early years:
Alan tells us that Owen Jones is an English born Welsh architect. He is born in the City of London. His father is a successful furrier and a Welsh antiquarian.
The family speaks Welsh at home because of his father’s heritage. His father is a principal founder of the Gwyneddigion Society which encourages Welsh studies and literature.
The Grand Tour:
Jones completes his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. He has an apprenticeship with Lewis Vulliamy and, because Vulliamy agrees, he gains experience as a surveyor.
Following his training he embarks on a Grand Tour in 1832. He travels to Italy, then on to Greece where he meets Jules Goury. They then travel to Cairo to study the Islamic architecture of Cairo and also the ancient sites. Following this they continue on to Constantinople .
They finally arrive in Granada and start their studies of the Islamic art of the Alhambra. For more information on the Alhambra please listen to Nigel Marriott’s talk on the Alhambra and Alan Freeland’s talk Islamic Spain’s History through Art and Architecture.
The Alhambra is pivotal to Jones’ development of his theories on flat pattern, geometry and polychromy. Goury dies of cholera whilst they at the Alhambra and Jones returns to London and publishes the results of their studies.
Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra:
At this time colour printing is basic. Jones decides that it is not adequate for his needs and because of this researches the new process of chromolithography.
He works with chemists and printers and prints the book in 12 parts over nearly 10 years.
To make money Jones uses his press to produce other colour books.
The rest of the story:
By now Jones is well known; listen to Alan’s talk to hear the whole story.
Please note:
This podcast is a recording of a talk on Zoom. In a few places there were network issues and there are a few extraneous noises.
It has not been possible to use all the graphics from the original talk because of copyright issues. Substitutes are used where they are available.
About this podcast:
This podcast is an edited recording of a talk first given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.
The Farnham u3a site is found here.
This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.
AKM Music has licensed Media Magazine for use as the theme music.
© The MrT Podcast Studio and Farnham u3a World History Group 2018 – 2021
