A dramatic Scottish landscape painting of Highland Cattle and Sheep by Charles ‘Sheep’ Jones. The cattle and sheep are depicted resting on a grassy hill with a mountainous landscape beyond.

Charles Jones was an animal painter who was born in Stepney, London in 1836. He was the son of the artist Samuel John Egbert Jones (1797-1861) and Dinah Jones. He lived with his parents and 9 siblings in Mile End and was a pupil of his father. In September 1859, he married Frances Rosalinda Downe, who was born in America. His son Arthur Bertram Loud (1863-1930) also became an artist. They lived at 12 Hayes Place, Lisson Grove from where he made his debut in London at the Royal Academy in 1861. He also exhibited at the British Institution, Suffolk Street, New Watercolour Society, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.

By 1867, he had become a successful artist and they had moved to 7 Paragon Place, Brixton Hill. From 1874 he lived at Heathercroft, Balham Hill where he spent the rest of his life. Jones became well known for specialising in paintings of sheep, cattle and deer in landscape settings. He spent his time travelling around visiting areas such as Devon, Dorset, Kent, Sussex and the Highlands. However, it is for his skilful painting of sheep that he is perhaps best known, and for which earned him the nickname of ‘Sheep’ Jones.

As well as the major London galleries, he also exhibited provincially at various locations including: the Royal Cambrian Academy where he was elected a member in 1886, the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, Manchester City Art Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Birmingham and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Some of the smaller more intimate galleries he exhibited at were Arthur Tooth & Sons and Thomas Richardson & Co in 1880. Around 1890, he was awarded a gold medal at the Chrystal Palace Exhibition. He died on 17 July, 1892 and was buried at Nunhead Cemetery, Southwark, London.

Examples of his paintings can be found at the Atkinson Art Gallery, Doncaster Museum, King’s Lyn Museum, National Museum of Wales, New Art Gallery Walsall, Royal Cornwall Museum, Russell-Cotes Museum and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery.