‘Country Farmhouse with Geese.’ In private collection.
Maud Raphael Jones (1863 – 1935) was a Bradford-born painter of landscape and rustic scenes, usually in watercolour.
Although his first name appears feminine, his birth details give his sex as male. In 2008, Maud’s grandson, Peter Jones, told a local journalist that Maud’s father had given him a girl’s name because:
He’d wanted a daughter and because his pals at a Bradford pub, where he called in on his way to the register office, bet him pints that he daren’t. But he did dare and eventually he arrived home from the Barkerend pub rather the worse for wear. (‘Telegraph & Argus’ 1/3/2008).
Maud’s talents were initially channelled, along with many other working-class people with artistic ability, into work as a house-painter and decorator. However, he became a member of the Arcadian Art Club, which met in the Swan Arcade in Bradford. It is not known, as yet, if he received any formal artistic training. However, he displayed considerable artistic talent and his work was shown at a range of prestigious venues.
He exhibited work at the Royal Academy, the New Gallery, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester Art Gallery, Glasgow Institute of Fine Art, and at both the Bradford and Leeds Art Gallery exhibitions. His painting ‘February’ (1887), shown below, hangs in the permanent collection at Cliffe Castle, Keighley.
‘February’. Image: BBC ‘Your Paintings’/Bradford Museums & Galleries
Maud’s work sold well, and toward the end of his life, in the 1920s & 30s, was typically fetching between £500 – £600; a considerable sum in those days. He married and was the father of the successful local artist, Fred Cecil Jones.
‘Toasting the bread’. Image: Invaluable.com. Painting in private collection