St George's Garden…

St George's Garden…
St George's Garden…
St George's Garden…
Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
St George's Garden, Venice (Part of the Giudecca from the Island of San Giorgio, Venice)
Date
c.1751 (undated)
Medium
Red chalk and bistre wash
Dimensions
Metric: 153 x 197 mm
Imperial: 6 x 7 3/4 in.
Collection
Private Collection, England
Accession Number
RF57
Wilson Online Reference
D18
Exhibited
Exeter 1946 (35); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (13)
Provenance
William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821; Marianne Ford; thence by descent
Signature/inscription
Inscribed by Wilson along the upper edge in red chalk: Venice over against St George's Garden. Built | before Venice
Techniques and materials
Brinsley Ford proposed that a knowledge of Francesco Zuccarelli's drawings might have suggested Wilson's choice of media since the combination of red chalk and bistre wash 'is often found in that artist's drawings, whereas this use of it by Wilson is unique' (Ford 1951, p. 51).
Subject
In the 1982 Tate exhibition catalogue, David Solkin argued that topographical evidence does not support Wilson's inscribed title and that the drawing rather depicts part of the Giudecca from the Island of San Giorgio. In the 18th century, medieval towers of the type depicted no longer existed at St George's Gardens but were still to be seen along the eastern tip of the Giudecca, just across a canal from the small island of San Giorgio, from where Wilson presumably took his view.
Related Drawings
D18A Tower on a Mole, The British Museum (1881,0212.57)
Bibliography
Ford 1951, p. 51, pl. 2; Solkin 1982, p. 154 ; Walpole Society 1998-1, p. 69, RF57
Condition/Conservation
Much disfigured by foxing, especially in the sky