Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo

Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo
Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo
Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo
Date
c.1752-54 (undated)
Medium
Black chalk heightened with white on grey paper
Dimensions
Metric: 264 x 417 mm
Imperial: 10 5/12 x 16 5/12 in.
Accession Number
DYCE.646
Wilson Online Reference
D163
Description
This drawing depicts the church and palace of Castel Gandolfo as seen from across Lake Albano. The high bank beneath the castle is richly studded with trees.
Exhibited
London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (41)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the Revd Alexander Dyce 1859
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; inscribed:
[1] Lower right corner in ink: 646
[2] On secondary support (see 'Mount Inscriptions')
Mount inscriptions
[1] Lower right corner on secondary support: 264
Labels
[1] Cartellino adhered to secondary support at lower right corner with inscriptions in black ink: 'Castello | Gondolfo' and in a different hand: 'Wilson'
Subject
Castel Gandolfo, summer residence of the popes, was a traditional subject for Italian seventeenth-century landscape-painters and became so again for British artists in the 18th century.
Related Drawings
D312 Castel Gandolfo and Lake Albano, Location Unknown
D314 Monte Cavo in the Alban Hills, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California
Related Paintings
P118 Lake Albano, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
P188A Lake Albano, Private Collection, England
P188B Lake Albano (Composite Landscape with Lake Albano and Vesuvius), The Provost and Fellows of Eton College
Critical commentary
This may well be the preliminary drawing for D312 (see 'Related Drawings'), to which it is close, although the hillside and buildings are drawn from a nearer viewpoint.
Bibliography
DYCE COLLECTION. A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings, Engravings, Rings and Miscellaneous Objects Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce, London : South Kensington Museum, 1874, p. 96; Sandby 1892, p. 91 [?]; Ford 1948, fig. 2; Ford 1951, p. 61, no. 67; WGC, pp. 107, 108, 111, 191, pl. 64a; Solkin 1982, pp. 166-167