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Lake of Albano
The Trustees of the British Museum
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Thomas Hastings after Wilson
Lake of Albano
Published September 1820
Etching on chine collé
143 x 208 mm
5 5/8 x 8 3/16 in
1854,0708.60
E72/3
View of a lake from a hillside, with a seated figure sketching in the centre foreground and a bearded man standing to his left. There is a hillside town in the middle ground at the left and mountains beyond the lake.
Bought from George Willis, Piazza, Covent Garden, 1854
Lettered below the image: 'The Original is in the Possession of Lady Ford | LAKE OF ALBANO '; production details and publication line: 'R. Wilson pinxit | 1768. in Rome' and T. Hastings fecit | 1820 in Londini | Published as the Act directs by T. Hastings | Sepr. 1820'
D221 Lake Nemi with Two Friars, Victoria & Albert Museum (DYCE.643)
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P159 Lake Nemi with two Friars, Private Collection, England
P159A Lake Nemi with two Friars, Private Collection
Despite the inscription Wilson had long since left Italy by 1768 and the lake depicted is Nemi, not Albano. As noted by Constable, Hastings's incorrect title no doubt led to later mistakes. E72/3 is from a series of forty etchings after paintings by Richard Wilson and additional title page, bound in a volume in red tooled leather with gold decorative border, lettered on the spine with 'Wilson's | Etchings | by | Hastings'. The title page is lettered in black and red: 'Etchings, | from the Works | of | [ facsimile of signature below portrait] Ric. Wilson | with Some Memoirs of his Life, &c. | by Thomas Hastings, Esq. | Collector of His Majesty's Customs. | "Non Ductus Officio Sed Amore Operis." Quintillian. | Published by Hurst, Robinson & Co. Cheapside, London. | Johnson, Typ. Apollo Press, 1825. Brook Street, Holborn'. The volume contains twenty pages of Introductory and Concluding Remarks by the etcher, including descriptions of Richard Wilson's original paintings.
Hastings 1825; WGC, p.207 under pl. 94b; Yule 2015, pp. 60 & 69
George Willis was an antiquarian book dealer, who occasionally published books and prints. His firm was active from 1832-1856 and sold many prints to the British Museum. In 1856 it merged with Thomas Sotheran to become Willis & Sotheran.