Jones himself wrote of this picture: "This was one of the best pictures I ever painted." The Welsh landscape artist here produced a marvellous example of the Classical landscape, in which nature is presented in
generalized, idealized form, although behind the image lie the artist's impressions from nature itself. The landscape is carefully constructed: the powerful trees, bent by gusts of wind, form a frame which helps to
create the impression of depth. Space is clearly divided into three planes, the artist used both light and colour to divide the different spacial zones. Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds and light up the distant
Carthage; the middle plane with its figures of riders and a shepherd are set in deep darkness; but in the foreground the sun lights up the Queen of Carthage, Dido, and Aeneas - Trojan hero of Virgil's Aeneid - whose
red cloak is the brightest spot in the painting. According to Virgil, Dido and Aeneas were forced to take shelter from a storm in a cave, where they became lovers. Later, on the instructions of Jupiter, Aeneas was to
leave Dido, who built herself a funeral pyre onto which she threw herself in her grief. The figures were the work of John Hamilton Mortimer.
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The artist described the story of the creation of this painting and the hopes he attached to it in his memoirs. The large-format canvas was hard to sell, but the Lord Grosvenor wanted to have it in his home and even asked for a second, companion piece to be painted.
Since Jones himself never painted people, he turned for help to another artist, who created a composition of five personages in the dramatic setting.
The episode depicted is from Book 4 of Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid and shows Dido and Aeneas about to take refuge in a cave.
In Roman mythology Dido was the queen who founded Carthage. Aeneas was a refugee from Troy after its destruction by the Greeks. He landed on the shores of Dido’s realm in the search of a new homeland for himself.
When working on this painting Jones used a dark grey primer, which makes the stormy sky seem especially gloomy. The painting is dense with multiple layers and only the figures of the central characters and the patch of sunlight falling on the surface of the distant sea were executed with light, translucent brushstrokes.
The large number of engravings produced of this picture made it famous beyond Britain and only 17 years after its creation, the Landscape with Dido and Aeneas found its way to Russia. The painting was purchased for Prince Grigory Potemkin and after his death it became part of Empress Catherine II’s Hermitage collection.
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