by Christopher Parry
Predictably, with the immediate family gone from the town many of the younger children ended up with distant relatives outside of Merthyr Tydfil.
Leonardo ended up as a Grocers Assistant at Holywell, in his father’s native Flintshire. He would then marry and become a Grocer in Birkenhead.
Francis Lawrence Jones all but disappears from the records. A letter held at Cyfarthfa Castle hints that he left for London and painted ‘for the great theatres in London.’ There is a correction on the letter however, indicating that an earlier sentence, referring to Angelo, was actually referring to Francis instead. This sentence states that Angelo went ‘to an uncle in Australia who was an engineer’. This narrative does not match up with other information on Angelo, so it is possible the author of the letter was referring to Francis. A 16-year-old Francis Lawrence Jones, from Merthyr Tydfil, did become part of the Royal Navy and sailed to Australia, eventually settling in New Zealand. While it is not certain, it is possible Francis left for naval service and never returned around 1880. Little is concrete with this family member though. Little is concrete about Rosa and Ernest too, as they all but disappear from records. Which leave the two eldest, Angelo and Raphael.
Raphael followed his father, and became an artist. He displayed work in shop windows throughout the town and became a well-regarded artist in his own right, creating and displaying work frequently around Merthyr Tydfil. An oil painting on display in a High Street shop window gained high praise in 1895, with newspapers stating it ‘reflects great credit on the young and talented artist.’ By 1900, Raphael would go for broke of sorts; he would leave Merthyr Tydfil and head to London to become a painter. He would spend the rest of his life in the Hackney are of London, creating illustrations for various magazines until his death in 1938. The museum at Cyfarthfa Castle holds a fantastic watercolour by Raphael called ‘Mountains and Lake’, painted in 1929. After suffering from ill health Isaac Wilkinson, a former curator at Cyfarthfa Castle, based at the National Museum of Wales, sold some paintings by Raphael to raise funds on his behalf. Cyfarthfa Castle purchased two watercolours in March 1937, one of them being ‘Mountains and Lake.’
William Angelo Jones clearly took a keen interest in his father’s work also. At the Merthyr Drill Hall Eisteddfod in 1875, he won first prize for free hand drawing. He attended the ‘Penydarren Art Classes, Merthyr Tydfil, from their inception, and studied under Mr J Bush, then under Mr G F Harris, artist and portrait painter, and assisted G F Harris for three winters.’ William Angelo would eventually leave Merthyr Tydfil to study art formally in Birmingham where he would also take up an art teacher position. It is unclear exactly when he left Merthyr Tydfil for Birmingham, as he possibly studied there from 1893, but was certainly living between there and Merthyr until at least the early 1900s, as several pieces of art were created by him of the area and in the town in that period. He would donate 12 pen and ink sketches to Cyfarthfa Castle in December 1937, the same year his brother’s artwork was purchased by the museum. These were all sketches intended to be printed as Christmas Cards. The images are full of floral patterns, art deco deigns, Santa Claus, trumpeting angels, turkeys and Christmas puddings, everything associated with the festive period.
More amazing is how he worked local landscapes into the cards, giving us stunning images of Heolgerrig and other localities around Merthyr Tydfil. These images were created ‘under most difficult adverse circumstances…’ No doubt William Angelo was struggling financially and like many artists before special occasions were an opportunity to raise funds.
When the artist Penry Williams was struggling, he would regularly rely on Valentine’s Day to make ends meet, when he would create cards for sale. Struggling circumstances were what possibly pushed William Angelo to move on from Merthyr Tydfil fully and it is likely he died in Birmingham in 1938.
We often focus on the large-scale industrialists when looking into Merthyr’s past and overlook the many trades and professions the iron industry attracted to the town. Several painters opened studios in the town over the years, without whom, in an era where photography was in its infancy, we would have no visual record of the people and places that make up Merthyr Tydfil.
I wonder if it could be said of my relation, John Dennithorne, that as well as his good works with the unemployed his contribution as artist and teacher helped create an atmosphere that fostered creativity in the Arts.