Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…

Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wilts. / The Bridgeman Art Library
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio
Title
Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury Cathedral
Date
c.1758-60 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 100.3 x 146.1 cm
Imperial: 39 1/4 x 57 11/16 in.
Accession Number
85
Wilson Online Reference
P77
Description
To the left is the east end of the south front of Wilton, designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1654. To the right beyond a framing cedar tree is the Palladian Bridge, built in 1736 by Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke and Roger Morris. In the distance are the loggia, and behind that, the spires of Salisbury Cathedral.
Exhibited
BI 1814 (172/176, 194/198 or 196/200, as View at Wilton/View of Wilton House); Birmingham 1948-49 (49); London 1949 (48)
Provenance
Painted for Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke; thence by descent
Signature/inscription
Signed on the tree at right: RW [monogram, the R reversed]
Techniques and materials
The ground is light with pinkish additions in parts, for example at the centre of the distant hill. The cedar tree is very blue - perhaps painted wet on wet. The dark storm clouds upper left are fussy and the strong rays of light descending from the sky in the centre are uncharacteristic of Wilson.
Related Drawings
D350/2 Study for Wilton House looking East, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection (1922.1681V)
Related Paintings
Four other views of Wilton painted for Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke (see 'Links' tab)
Critical commentary
One of a series of five views of Wilton House that Wilson painted for the 10th Earl of Pembroke, whom he first met in Italy. The entire set is not likely to be later than 1760, when Lord Pembroke left Britain for two years of military service on the Continent. The architecture is Canalettesque but stiff and the painting is likely to be at least partly studio work.
Bibliography
Catalogue 1814, p. 21; Waterhouse 1953, p. 177, pl. 144; WGC, pp. 88, 189, pl. 59a; S. Pembroke, A Catalogue of the Paintings and Drawings in the Collection at Wilton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1968, pp. 35-36, cat. 85, pl. 23; Solkin 1978, p. 406, fig. 1; J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London 1979, p. 276, pl. 298c; R. Strong, The Artist and the Garden, 2000, p. 253, fig. 314; F. Russell, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Wilton House, 2021, p. 121, cat. 209; J.M. Robinson, Wilton House, 2021, pp. 163-67.
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
More Information
The figures on the lawn are playing bowls and the man leaning against the tree at the right is probably keeping the score. Francis Russell has documented the exceptional size of the cedars at Wilton.
Condition/Conservation
Unglazed. Relined on two canvases. Cleaned and repaired in 1935. Paint very thin in the house and lake, possibly due to overcleaning in the past.
Kate Lowry has noted: In a gilt frame with ribbon motif matching that of P79. Recently restored by Simon Foulkes. Stretcher size recorded by him: 39 1/4 x 57 11/16 in.; 99.6 x 146.5 cm. Oil on canvas. Signed 'RW' with reversed 'R' in tree trunk at right of composition. Pale ground with pink underpaint visible beneath foliage and foreground tones. Figures playing bowls are quite lanky. Architecture of building carried out in a laboured Canaletto-like style. Foliage of fir-tree rendered with swishy brush-strokes. (Simon Foulkes says there is an old tear here.) Probably painted by Wilson's pupils.

Updated by Compiler
2021-12-21 00:00:00