On Hounslow Heath

On Hounslow Heath
On Hounslow Heath
On Hounslow Heath
Tate, London 2014
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
On Hounslow Heath
Date
c.1765 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 42.5 x 52.7 cm
Imperial: 16 3/4 x 20 3/4 in.
Accession Number
N04458
Wilson Online Reference
P131
Description
An extensive landscape with a market woman in a red dress seated on a bank in the left foreground, her back to the viewer and a basket by her side. Beyond is a river, on the near bank of which two donkeys are grazing. Upstream are a weir and a thickly-wooded island.
Exhibited
RA 1770 (203 - a version); Brighton 1920 (11); London 1925 (11); Manchester 1925 (40); Birmingham 1948 (36); London 1949 (35); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (111); Tercentenary 2014 (140)
Provenance
Commissioned by Thomas Davies (1712-85); Benjamin Booth; Revd R.S.Booth; Lady Ford; Richard Ford; Sir F. Clare Ford; Captain Richard Ford, sold 14 June 1929 (20), bt R.E.A. Wilson and M. Liver (Savile Gallery, 900 guineas); presented through the National Art Collections Fund to the National Gallery by R.E.A. Wilson and M. Oliver, 1929; transferred to Tate Gallery
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Subject
The view, looking east, shows part of the watermeadows beside the River Crane near Whitton Place, an estate on Hounslow Heath acquired in 1765 by Wilson's friend, the architect Sir William Chambers from John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll.
Related Drawings
D360 A View of On Hounslow Heath, Private Collection, UK, c/o Lowell Libson Ltd
Related Prints
Thomas Hastings after Richard Wilson:
E72/1 The British Museum
E72/1A The British Museum
E72/1B Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Critical commentary
Hounslow Heath was not known for its beauty or cultural significance, the attraction lies in the beauty of the sky and the reflections in the water. The patron, Thomas Davies, was a Bloomsbury bookseller, one of a new breed of middle class buyers whom Wilson had not previously approached. In Booth's unpublished list the work is given as '17 Hounslow Heath sd to be taken near Wootton late D. Argyle's (?) for Tom Davies 20 3/4 - 15 1/4'. In his introduction to Etchings from the Works of Ric. Wilson, with some Memoirs of his Life &c., Thomas Hastings states that 'Paul Sandby was with Wilson at the time the Sketch was made for the subject of Hounslow Heath'.
Bibliography
Booth Notes Doc. 8; Booth Notes Doc. 9 (17 - Hounslow Heath sd to be taken near Wootton late D. Argyle's (?) for Tom Davies 20 3/4 - 17); Hastings 1825, p. 9; The Burlington Magazine, vol. 36, April 1920, pp. 193-95, pl. IA; Rutter 1923, p. 92; WGC, pp. 93, 177-78, pl. 39b; Davies 1946, pp. 178-79, cat. 4458; Davies 1959, pp. 105-6; Hayes 1964, pp. 338-39, fig. 38; Herrmann 1973, p. 58, pl. 51, detail, col. pl. VII; Solkin 1982, p. 220, no. 111; Waites 2012, pp. 56-57, pl. 7; Wilson and Europe 2014 (140)
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
More Information
The patron, Thomas Davies, was a Bloomsbury bookseller, one of a new breed of middle class buyers whom Wilson had not previously approached. In Booth's unpublished list the work is given as '17 Hounslow Heath sd to be taken near Wootton late D. Argyle's (?) for Tom Davies 20 3/4 - 15 1/4'. In his introduction to Etchings from the Works of Ric. Wilson, with some Memoirs of his Life &c., Hastings says that 'Paul Sandby was with Wilson at the time the Sketch was made for the subject of Hounslow Heath' (p.9)
Condition/Conservation
Dimensions framed: 60.8 x 72.5 cm (23 15/16 x 28 1/2 in.)
Visual examination and sampling by Ann Baxter 1982.
Kate Lowry has noted: Relined. Original tacking margins missing. Warm cream coloured ground applied in two layers with intervening size layer. Ultramarine found in the sky. Pentiment in central trees where Wilson has painted out one of the right hand branches and repainted it in a different position. Foreground impasto somewhat flattened by lining treatment.
Illustrations of the Work
Burlington Magazine, April 1920, p. 193
Updated by Compiler
2017-11-08 00:00:00