A View in Kew Gardens

A View in Kew Gardens
A View in Kew Gardens
A View in Kew Gardens
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Felton Bequest, 1939)
title=Credit line
Artist
William Birch (1755-1834) after Wilson
Title
A View in Kew Gardens
Date
Published 1 February 1789
Medium
Stipple engraving and etching
Dimensions
Metric: 211 x 235 mm
Imperial: 8 5/ 16 x 9 1/4 in.
Accession Number
0653/4
Wilson Online Reference
E53B
Description
View in parkland with two men in a punt in the centre foreground, putting off from the bank onto a lake, with a Chinese pagoda on the far bank and a low Chinese bridge to the left. There are cattle, two more figures and a man leading a horse on the right.
Provenance
Felton Bequest 1939
Signature/inscription
Lettered below the image [not showing in the image]: A VIEW in KEW GARDENS, [in strengthened letters] | 'Painted by Richard Wilson, RA, and engraved by W. Birch, Enamel Painter. | Publish'd Feby. 1. 1789 by Wm. Birch, Hampstead Heath, & sold by T.Thornton, Southampton Strt. Covt. Garden.'
Subject
Kew was later to become a favourite retreat of King George III. In the 19th century it was much enlarged and became the famous Royal Botanic Gardens, open to the public. The exotic variety of classical, Moorish and Chinese temples and buildings which Chambers designed were placed within an enclosed garden with a perimeter walk by the side of the Thames. One of the few remaining and the most distinctive was the Chinese Pagoda, 163 feet high. It was built rapidly in six months and finished in the spring of 1762.
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
P109 Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Palladian Bridge,Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
Critical commentary
The print was included in Birch's Délices de la Grande Bretagne, published in 1791. This comprised a series of etchings of a uniform size after topographical paintings by well-known artists of the day, including Wilson, Reynolds and Gainsborough. 36 plates were made for this work, of which eight are views of London. Apparently intended for the French market, by the time the collection was published in 1791 the political atmosphere was changing and the accompanying letterpress was all in English.
Bibliography
W.R. Birch, Délices de la Grande Bretagne, 1791, unpaginated
Condition/Conservation
On brown paper; very stained and ragged at the edges.
Updated by Compiler
2022-05-19 00:00:00