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Italian Sketchbook - Drawings pp. 1(v) and 2(r)
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
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Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Italian Sketchbook - Drawings pp. 1(v) and 2(r)
1754
Graphite with white and black chalk on medium, rough, blued white wove paper
281 x 210 mm (each sheet)
11 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (each sheet)
B1977.14.359 v1 & r2
D280/1
Oldfield Bowles; given to Sir George Beaumont, 1784; thence by descent until 1963, when sold to Paul Mellon
1(v) signed recto on adhered drawing lower right, graphite: W;
2(r) inscribed by Wilson recto lower left, graphite : Aqueducts of Clodian
2(r): The Claudian Aqueduct (Aqua Claudia), completed by the Emperor Claudius, 41-54 AD was one of nine aqueducts of imperial Rome. It was remarkable for the quantity of water it conveyed to the city and was by far the grandest in terms of architectural effect, running for about six miles before it reached the city as a continuous range of lofty arches up to 33 meters (109 ft) high.
Francis Towne: The Claudian Aqueduct, Rome, watercolour, 1785, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven (B1978.43.170)
The upper section of the left page (1(v)) has adhered to it a small drawing of a landscape with river or lake, distant town and framing tree with figures and a marker stone.
The inscription on 2(r) probably refers to the Claudian Aqueduct in Rome (see Subject).
Object ID: 6363
Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 1, unpaginated and vol. 2, p. 27
Only two sketchbooks by Wilson have survived - the present one (D280-D280/33) and D53-D53/81 Studies and Designs by R. Wilson done in Rome in the Year MDCCLII, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (E.3586-1922).