About the work

The soft-toy subject depicted in this drawing is a found vintage Steiff mole collected for the purpose of painting. The lost or discarded toy animals which I find for painting move silently back and forth from still-life to traditional portraiture. I try to avoid narrative but in this particular drawing the natural-history-illustration style implies a closer investigation. The compositional reference to Mantegna’s Dead Christ is not unintended.

Date and country of birth

1968, GB

About the artist

Born Birmingham 1968, Peter Jones lives and works in London. He graduated from the University of Reading (1992).

Solo shows at FRED in London and Leipzig in 2006 of the first series of Monkey Paintings confirmed Peter’s reputation as an artist and earned him a following for his still-life paintings of vintage toys which he collects for this purpose. Traditionally the monkey in art symbolises the primitive beast within us, but is also by turns capricious, playful, and vulnerable. The monkey paintings were followed by a group of lamb paintings, dog paintings, and an ongoing series of various animal subjects including bunnies, and birds, symbolising innocence, faithfulness, love, and disillusionment. 

Selected exhibitions include Hastings Open (2020); Still-Here, Newington Gallery, London (2019); Darlings of The Underground, Subsidiary Projects, London (2019); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2019); ING Discerning Eye, London (2019); Make_Shift, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2017-18); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2018); Nature Morte, Guildhall Art Gallery, London and touring (2015-17); Models and Materialities, Bay Arts, Cardiff (2016); Picaresque, Hå gamle prestegard, Nærbø (2014); Discernible, ZAP Gallery, London (2013); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2013); Psychometry, Core Gallery, London (2010); Pretty Baa-Lambs, MADDER139, London (2009); Small Mischiefs, Pump House Gallery, London (2006); Non-Human, David Risley Gallery, London (2004); and every Drawing Biennial since Drawing One Hundred, Drawing Room, London (2003).