Henry Jones Thaddeus

{{Infobox artist

| name = Henry Jones Thaddeus

| image = Wounded Poacher Henry Jones Thaddeus.jpg

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| caption = Le retour du braconnier ("The Wounded Poacher"), painting by Henry Jones Thaddeus, 1881; now in National Gallery of Ireland

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| birth_name = Henry Thaddeus Jones

| birth_date = 1859

| birth_place = Cork, Ireland

| death_date = 1929

| death_place = Ryde, Isle of Wight

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| nationality = Irish

| education = Cork School of Art; London; Académie Julian, Paris

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| known_for = Painter

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| movement = Orientalist; realist; Impressionist

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Henry Jones Thaddeus (1859–1929) was a realist and portrait painter born and trained in County Cork, Ireland.{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/henry-thaddeus-a-portrait-artist-to-watch-1.210080 | publisher=Irish Times |title= Henry Thaddeus - a portrait artist to watch |date=24 July 1999 }}

Life and career

Born Henry Thaddeus Jones in 1859,{{cite book|title=The Life and Work of Harry Jones Thaddeus, 1859-1929 |publisher=Four Courts Press |date= 2003 | author=Rooney, Brendan |isbn=9781851826926 }} he entered the Cork School of Art when he was ten years old.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/recollectionsofc00thad |publisher=John Lane |author=Thaddeus, Henry Jones |date=1912 |title=Recollections of a Court Painter | place = London }} There he studied under the genre painter James Brenan. Thaddeus won the Taylor Prize in 1878 enabling him to go to London,{{cite web|url=http://www.theoriel.com/Biog.asp?ArtistSurName=THADDEUS |title=Henry Jones Thaddeus |publisher=The Oriel Gallery |accessdate=8 October 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054539/http://www.theoriel.com/Biog.asp?ArtistSurName=THADDEUS |archivedate=4 March 2016 }} and then again in 1879 enabling him to continue his studies in Paris at the Académie Julian. His first major painting, Le Retour du Braconnier (illustration, right), was hung "on the line" (at eye-level) at the Paris Salon of 1881.{{cite journal|journal=Irish Arts Review |jstor = 20491898 | title = Jour de Marché, Finistère |first=Julian |last = Campbell |date=1986 | volume = III | issue = 3 | pages = 16–18 }}

He received commissions to paint portraits, among them two papal portrait commissions (for Pope Pius X), and became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He received several other portrait commissions.

In the 1880s, Thaddeus travelled to Algeria where he explored Orientalist painting.{{cite web|url = http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/biographies-of-irish-artists/henry-jones-thaddeus.htm | work = Encyclopedia of Visual Artists in Ireland | via = visual-arts-cork.com | title = Henry Jones Thaddeus RHA (1859-1929) | accessdate = 4 January 2024 }}

His autobiography, titled Recollections of a Court Painter, was written during his retirement in California and published in 1912.

In his latter years he settled in the Isle of Wight, and died there at Ryde, on 1 May 1929.