Still-Life with Flask

Still-Life with Flask
Still-Life with Flask
Still-Life with Flask
The Trustees of the British Museum
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Still-Life with Flask
Date
c.1751-52 (undated)
Medium
Black chalk and stump on rough-grained paper
Dimensions
Metric: 214 x 176 mm
Imperial: 8 1/2 x 7 in.
Accession Number
1953,0509.5
Wilson Online Reference
D68
Description
A wicker-covered flask stands on a table at the left, casting a shadow onto the wall on the right
Exhibited
London 1916 (6); London 1925 (76); Manchester 1925 (41); Ipswich 1927 (107 - Still Life); London 1934 (1102); Paris 1938 (254); Birmingham 1948-49 (122); London 1949 (121); Arts Council 1951 (211); BM 1969 (109); Kenwood 1974 (50); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (25)
Provenance
4th Earl of Warwick; Herbert Horne; Sir Edward Marsh, 1904; bequeathed through the National Art Collections Fund, 1953
Signature/inscription
Signed lower centre: R W.
Collectors' marks
[1] Lower right corner: Earl of Warwick (Lugt 2600)
Related Drawings
D69 Chair and Sword Hilt, National Galleries of Scotland (D 4663)
Critical commentary
Of Wilson's several drawings of still-life, this is by far the most complex. Such drawings seem to have been undertaken as studies in the play of light and shadow, probably as a result of working by candlelight, emphasised here by the contrast between his narrow hatchings and extensive use of stump. As noted by Solkin, the result is a subtle flow of chiaroscuro, quite unlike the far more schematic tonal contrasts that mark his early sketches from nature.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
851/13 (39)
Bibliography
Binyon 1916, p. 20; Ipswich 1927, p. 68; Vasari Society, 2nd series, part XIV, 1933, p. 7, no. 2; Commemorative Catalogue 1934 (580); Ford 1951, p. 55, pl. 23; Festival 1951, p. 67, pl. Va; Solkin 1982, p. 159; Spencer-Longhurst 2012, pp. 72-73, fig. 42
Illustrations of the Work
Vasari Society, 2nd series, part XIV, no. 2