Artist · 79 prints
Owen Jones Prints
About Owen Jones
Owen Jones was a British architect, designer and writer, born in London on 15 February 1809, who died on 19 April 1874. He trained at the Royal Academy, and from 1833 to 1834 travelled through the Near East and Spain. At the Alhambra palace in Granada he spent six months recording its Islamic decoration with the French architect Jules Goury, who died of cholera during their stay. Jones later supervised works for the Great Exhibition of 1851, designing the Crystal Palace's interior colour scheme in bold primary colours.
Owen Jones is best known for The Grammar of Ornament (1856), a large book of colour plates gathering Eastern and Western patterns, along with his principles of good design. It is still in print. His earlier Plans, Elevations, Sections and Details of the Alhambra (1842 to 1845) was a landmark in chromolithography, a method of printing in many colours. He believed colour was central to design, writing that "form without colour is like a body without a soul."
Owen Jones prints: reproductions of the colour ornament plates Owen Jones published in The Grammar of Ornament (1856) and Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867). The collection includes Arabian and Moresque Ornament (1856), Leaves from Nature No. 7 (1856), Pompeian No. 1 (1856), Indian No. 1 (1856) and Chinese Ornament: Lotus Medallion on Apple Green (1867).
This selection concentrates on two groups of plates. The first covers patterns from many traditions in The Grammar of Ornament, including Greek, Pompeian, Moresque, Indian, Italian Renaissance and Elizabethan designs, and the Leaves from Nature plates drawn from real foliage. The second is a large set of Chinese ornament plates, with peonies, lotus, phoenix bands and cloud collars on strong coloured grounds.
The flat, symmetrical patterns suit dining rooms, kitchens, entryways and home offices, and several plates from one series hang well as a grid. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with low-glare acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
