781
an infl uential family of French origins whilst his mother
Julia, Comtesse de Lusi was born in Castlejordan, Meath
of German extraction. His relations included the Royal
Astronomer, Charles Jasper Joly and Jasper Robert Joly,
a founder of the National Library of Ireland. He was
educated in Trinity College, Dublin from 1876 to 1882
where he was to remain as a lecturer, professor and fel-
low for the rest of his life. He became interested in the
application of photography to the various sciences and
to astronomy in particular in the late 1880s. However,
he was to make his greatest contribution to the fi eld of
colour photography. His additive process which was
patented in 1894 was the fi rst successful method of pro-
ducing colour from a single plate. Although his method
was supplanted by the Lumière Brothers Autochrome
process he was to retain an interest in photography.
He continued to publish widely in the fi elds of botany,
mineralogy, geology and experimental physics making
a considerable contribution to the fi eld of radiation
treatment. He died in Dublin on 8 December 1933 and
is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin.
See also: Maxwell, James Clerk; du Hauron, André
Louis Ducos; Cros, Charles Emile Hortensius; and
Ives, Frederick Eugene.
Further Reading
Chandler, Eddie, Photography in Ireland: The Nineteenth Cen-
tury, Dublin: Edmund Burke Publisher, 2001.
“Death of Dr. John Joly. Many-sided man of science. Pioneer of
radium treatment. His great service to geology,” in The Irish
Times, 9 December 1933, 9–10 (Obituary notice).
Henchy, P., “The Joly Family, Jasper Robert Joly and the National
Library,” in Irish University Review, 7, 1977, 184–198.
Isler-de Jongh, Ariane, “The Origins of Colour Photography
Scientifi c, Technical and Artistic Interactions,” in History of
Photography, vol. 18, no. 2, Summer 1994, 111–119.
Joly, John, “On a method of photography in natural colours,” in
Scientifi c Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, Series
2, 1896, 127–138.
Marder, William and Estelle, “Louis Ducos du Hauron (1837–
1920),” in History of Photography, vol. 18, no. 2, Summer
1994, 134–139.
Ní Dhuibhne, Éilis, “Photographs” in Treasures from the National
Library of Ireland, edited by Noel Kissane, Dublin: The Boyne
Valley Honey Company, 1994.
Nudds, John R., “The Life and Work of John Joly (1857–1933),”
in Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 8 no. 1, 1986, 81–94.
Rouse, Sarah, Into the Light: An Illustrated Guide to the Photo-
graphic Collections in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin:
National Library of Ireland, 1998.
JONES, CALVERT RICHARD (1804–1877)
British painter and photographer
Calvert Richard Jones was born in Swansea, South Wales
on 4 December 1802 the eldest of fi ve children. He had
two brothers and two sisters. His father, also named
Calvert Richard Jones, and mother, Prudence, lived at Ve-
randa, a house in Singleton Park, Swansea. About 1813
the family moved to the nearby Heathfi eld House. As part
of the landed gentry of South Wales, Jones’s father was
active in civic affairs. The young Jones was educated at
Oriel College, Oxford where he gained a fi rst class degree
in mathematics in 1823. While at Oxford he became a
close friend of Christopher (Kit) Rice Mansel Talbot, fi rst
cousin of William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1824 Jones and
Kit travelled to the Mediterranean to purchase works of
art. In 1829 Jones took holy orders to take up position as
rector of Loughor, a small town near Penllergaer, Wales
and as lay rector of St Mary’s Swansea. As a rector he
performed the marriage ceremony of his friend Kit and
Lady Charlotte Butler in 1835. Jones abandoned his
ecclesiastical profession at the time of his fi rst marriage
on 25 July 1837 to Anne Harriet who bore their only
child, Christina Henrietta Victoria Games.
Jones became a talented musician as well as a skilled
draughtsman and painter in watercolour and oils. It is
believed that the artist Samuel Prout gave him instruc-
tion and that he was acquainted with the marine paint-
ers John Wichelo and George Chambers and members
of the Old Watercolour Society. Jones’ drawings and
paintings dating from the 1830s show landscapes and
fi gures but he favoured marine subjects made around
Swansea, especially ships beached or in dry harbour.
The controlled and precise nature of these works sug-
gests the use of an optical drawing aid such as a camera
lucida or camera obscura though there is no evidence to
prove this. However, it is clear that Jones later applied
to photography the artistic methods of composition,
and some of the same subject matter, that he had dealt
with as a draftsman.
In February 1839 Jones learned of the photogenic
drawing and calotype process through Fox Talbot’s
correspondence with his cousin Emma and her husband
John Dillwyn Llewelynwho were friends and neigh-
bours of Jones in South Wales. Writing to Talbot, his
cousin Charlotte Traherne noted, “Mr Calvert Jones is
quite wild about it and I dare say by this time is mak-
ing experiments in Swansea himself.” (Buckman, 21).
Notwithstanding his enthusiasm for Talbot’s discovery,
Jones was also quick to respond to the announcement of
the daguerreotype process that he also learned between
1840 and 1841. The only known example by him is a
fi ne view of Margam castle (1841), built in 1830 by
Kit Talbot (National Library of Wales). However, Jones
was keen to use calotypes on his travels since the paper
used was lighter than the copper daguerreotype plates
and easier to prepare in advance. Talbot’s patent had
become available in February 1841 and by May Jones
had written to Talbot wanting details. By June, Jones
was practising it Italy but with limited success due to
technical diffi culties.