This flamboyant portrait of the young Robert Jones III, resplendently attired in a fashionable hussars uniform, is a rare example of a portrait of a Welsh sitter by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Dated by David Mannings to the years 1767–69, the portrait was commissioned by the sitter to hang in his picturesque Welsh Castle, Fonmon, a property which had been in his family for over a hundred years and which he had recently renovated. The painting has remained in the same family ownership ever since.

Fonmon is a medieval castle in Glamorganshire that dates from the twelfth century, though it is possibly based on an earlier building from the era of the Norman incursions into Wales. It was originally owned by the St John family who carried out various additions and improvements to the castle. At the t.mes of the Civil War the St John family suffered financial hardship and were forced to sell the estate in 1654 to Colonel Philip Jones, a direct ancestor of the sitter in this portrait. A prominent Parliamentarian in Wales, Philip Jones entertained Oliver Cromwell when he came to Wales in 1649. He later sat as Philip Lord Jones in Cromwell's Upper House and was in charge of his funeral arrangements. In 1658, Jones successfully defended Cardiff Castle against Royalist attacks.

Philip Jones’s descendants prospered. His grandson, Robert Jones I (c. 1682–1715), who inherited Fonmon Castle at about the age of four, made an advantageous marriage to Mary, daughter of Sir Humphrey Edwin, one t.mes Lord Mayor of London. His son, Robert Jones II (1706–1742), went on the Grand Tour with some of his Edwin relations in 1730, visiting Rome, Naples and Venice. Whilst in Italy, he collects ed a number of Italian paintings, which were sent back to Wales and which included a fine work by Panini (see lot 17). A 1743 inventory of pictures at Fonmon lists thirty-three paintings. He also commissioned the fine family group by William Hogarth (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff).¹ After his death in 1742, Fonmon Castle was inherited by Robert Jones III, the sitter in this portrait.

Robert Jones III led a rather extravagant lifestyle. In 1762 he married Jane, the daughter of Evan Seys of Boverton, a very prominent local family, and the substantial inheritance of the Boverton estates probably encouraged Robert to do extensive work at Fonmon. He employed the Bristol firm of Thomas Paty to add battlements to the castle, added sash windows, covered the external surfaces with renderings, created a staircase hall within the east wing, combined the drawing room and library and commissioned the finest plasterwork from the Bristol plasterer Thomas Stocking, and added stables and a splendid watchtower to the garden. All in all, he created a worthy setting for the picture collects ion he inherited from his father. Unfortunately, the young Robert was plagued by debt and was obliged to escape creditors by fleeing to France in 1784 where he lived for six years.

Reynolds has taken particular care to paint Robert Jones here in a magnificent white silk hussars uniform, the height of fashion at this period. Indeed, Reynolds used this uniform several t.mes s, notably in his portrait of Peter Ludlow (Woburn Abbey), a near contemporary of the present sitter. Aileen Ribeiro (see Literature) has written about the origins of such a cost.mes and its popularity in Britain. Hussar regiments originated from irregular national militias in Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century and following the defeat of the Turks in 1683 such hussars could be found in the regular Austrian army. The popularity of these uniforms probably arose during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740 when Britain supported the Empress Maria Theresa in her efforts to repel the armies of Frederick the Great. Sources for the precise uniform go back to a collects ion of engravings of 1714 which were later copied in Britain by Thomas Jeffreys in his masquerade fashion book. The uniform was worn to great acclaim by Garrick in James Thornton’s play Tancred and Sigismunda, and in 1749 at a famous masquerade at Ranelagh to celebrate the peace of Aix La Chapelle Mrs Montagu noted that ‘Lord Sandwich made a fine hussar’.

This portrait of Robert Jones dates from the years 1767–69, a significant period for Reynolds when he was at the height of his powers. In 1768, he began to work for the Williams Wynn family, the most powerful family in Wales, and in 1769 he was to become President of the newly founded Royal Academy. During this period, he also painted such masterpieces as Warren Hastings, 1767 (National Portrait Gallery, London)² and Frederick Howard 5th Earl of Carlisle, 1769 (Tate Gallery, London).³

¹ Inv. no. NMW A 3978; oil on canvas, 72 x 91.8 cm.
² Inv. no. NPG445; oil on canvas, 126.4 x 101 cm.
³ Inv. no. T14646; oil on canvas, 240 x 147.5 cm.