Claire Jones's research centres on nineteenth-century French and British sculpture and the decorative arts. Formerly Curator of Furniture at the Bowes Museum, and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of York, Claire is currently writing a new monograph on Victorian sculpture.
"'This book provides a richly informative analysis of the intersecting practices within French sculpture and decorative arts. It opens up a neglected field and proposes a more inclusive research methodology which (it is hoped) will be extended beyond the confines of France.' Decorative Arts Society Newsletter 'This book is an important contribution towards the growing interest in art history to explore design and decorative art from a more critical and scholarly perspective. It is a significant title for the history of art and design.' ARLIS '...an important contribution to the field of late nineteenth-century ornamental sculpture and the sculptors who worked within this field.' H-France 'Clarity of purpose and historical rigour underpin Claire Jones‘s study of sculpture and the decorative arts in France in the second half of the nineteenth century.As well as making an important contribution to the scholarship on individual figures such as Barbedienne and S n and drawing our attention a range of fascinating and understudied objects, the painstaking archival research that forms the backbone to each chapter will be particularly welcomed by specialistsof nineteenth-century French art.' Sculpture Journal 'Jones monograph greatly expands our knowledge of French sculpture and decorative arts and the complex interplay between the two between 1848 and 1895. The author convincingly shows some of the ways in which ""the division between private, state, commercial, fine and decorative"" (p. 109) was not nearly as clear cut as previous scholarship has asserted. Just as importantly, this book should serve as a model and a springboard for similarly fruitful research on the role of artists and artisans in design reform and the connections between ""high"" and ""low"" art in this and other periods.' Journal of Design History 'Claire Jones Sculpture and Design Reform in France 1848 1895 sig"