Barbara Jones:
Out in the Hall, 1960
Unframed (ref: 5363)

Oil and wax, 3 panels 

Tags: Barbara Jones oil panel big pictures murals TOP 100 1.Master Designs 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Murals catalogue

Provenance: Acquired from the artist’s studio, NW3, in 2010

Exhibited: Mural Art Today, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1962, no. 18.

Literature: Mural Art Today, 1962, Victoria & Albert Museum, p. 8, (reproduced p. 24); Ruth Artmonsky, Barbara Jones, Artmonsky Arts, 2008, p.142; British Murals and Decorative Painting 1920-1960, Sansom & Co, 2013, p.333.

Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.85.

Ruth Artmonksy records that Jones produced 29 murals of which only two are thought to have survived, (Ruth Artmonsky, Barbara Jones, Artmonsky Arts, 2008, p. 114).This statistic is probably indicative of a 90% destruction rate that British murals have in general been subjected to in the twentieth century.

The setting for Out in the Hall is the artist's Hampstead Home No.2  Well Walk,  which was filled with a lifetime of collecting eccentric objects. The picture on the stairs shows is a self portrait.

‘In Out in the Hall Jones showed her creative confidence in caricaturing an Edwardian house entrance hall, along with compulsory hatstand and family portrait; yet dominating the scene is a large stuffed bear carrying a tray! The whole image was built up over three panels, some 12 ft in length, and much resembles the hallway to Barbara’s own house, filled as it was with macabre miscellanea.’ (Ruth Artmonsky, British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960, Sansom & Co, 2013, p.333)