The River Dee near Eaton Hall

The River Dee near Eaton Hall
The River Dee near Eaton Hall
The River Dee near Eaton Hall
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
The River Dee near Eaton Hall
Date
Early 1760s (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 68.6 x 114.3 cm
Imperial: 27 x 45 1/2 in
Accession Number
P.2005.XX.2.
Wilson Online Reference
P86B
Description
The view is from east of Eaton Hall, near Eccleston, Cheshire, perhaps at the Crook of Dee, near the Aldford Road. The Dee extends from the left foreground to the centre middle distance and is bordered on both sides by trees and bushes. At a bend in the middle distance there is a building and in a field to the left, cows are grazing. A tree in the right foreground extends its branches nearly halfway across the picture and below it on the bank are a standing fisherman, a seated man and a reclining woman. The direction seems to be downstream, towards the north-west, Chester with its Old Dee Bridge, and the distant hills of Wales. The mood is one of evening.
Exhibited
BI 1824 (146 - View on the River Dee, lent Sir T. Baring); BI 1842 (75 - Banks of the Dee, lent Sir T. Baring); BI 1845 (130 - Landscape); RA Old Masters 1871 (381 - River Scene and Figures, lent Earl of Dudley); RA Old Masters 1894 (102 - lent Holford); London 1925 (6 - lent by Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford, KCVO, CIE.); Vienna 1927 (44 - lent Holford); Amsterdam 1936 (178)
Provenance
Sir Thomas Baring Bt (1772-1848), Stratton Park, East Stratton, Hampshire by 1814; sold Christie's, 2 June 1848 (45 - A View on the Dee, with extensive distant country, lighted by a glaring evening sun; some peasants in the foreground), bt James or J.E. Fordham (£164-17-0); William Coningham, sold Christie's 9 June 1849 (23); bt Farrer (£225-15-0); Earl of Dudley by 1871; sold Christie's, 25 June 1892 (32); bt Agnew, 300 guineas; 1893, Pandeli Ralli (1845-1928); 1894, Sir George Lindsay Holford, Dorchester House, Park Lane, London W. & Westonbirt, Gloucestershire; sold Christie's 17-18 May 1928 (121), bt Agnew (4100 gns); Major Jack S. Courtauld, Burton Park, Petworth; Mrs J.S. Courtauld; Miss Jeanne Courtauld; bequeathed to the Courtauld Institute, 2005
Signature/inscription
Inscribed lower centre below the figures: RW monogram, the R reversed
Techniques and materials
The artist has used two different blues for the sky and river - a more purplish pigment, probably ultramarine, for the sky and a greenish blue for the river (probably Prussian blue).
Labels
[1] Handwritten in brown ink on label at top, reverse left corner:
W.O.
420
3...
[2] TENTOONSTELLUNG VAN ENGELSCHE KUNST
LOAN EXHIBITION OF BRITISH ART
STEDELIJK MUSEUM - AMSTERDAM 1936
Name of Artist: R. Wilson
Title of work: Landscape
Name and address of owner: Major J.S. Courtauld, Burton Park - Petworth.
Subject
The composition appears to be the first depiction of 'public' British scenery, as opposed to private estates, executed after Wilson's return from Italy. Writers from Elizabethan times, including Spenser and Milton, referred to an ancient tradition ascribing divine qualities to the Dee, prophetic for the fortunes of England and Wales, lying either side of it. Eaton Hall was the ancestral seat of Sir Richard Grosvenor and in a modern form is currently that of his descendant, the 7th Duke of Westminster.
Related Drawings
D354 The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton Hall Cheshire, Art Institute of Chicago, Leonora Hall Gurley Collection
Related Prints
E25 Thomas Morris after Wilson, The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton, Cheshire, The British Museum & other impressions
E71/1 John Young after Wilson, View on the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, The British Museum
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
P111 The Valley of the Dee with Chester in the Distance, The National Gallery, London
Critical commentary
Wilson painted this charming river scene a few years after his return from Italy. There he had studied the landscape of the Roman Campagna and its representation by Claude and Gaspard Dughet, as evident here in the soft, golden lighting. The influence of Aelbert Cuyp is also discernible, but more evident is that of Claude's river variations, such as Landscape with the Flight into Egypt (1663, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid). P86, the Barber Institute's painting, is the earliest of numerous versions. Even if it was not the picture exhibited at the Society of Artists exhibition of 1760 it must have been painted about that year, which is also that of the Petworth version (P86A). Comparison at the National Gallery (2 September 2013) revealed that the present painting (P86B) is a much more fluid and worked up picture than P86, with many more background details, suggesting that it, too, was an exhibition picture.
Bibliography
The Holford Collection, Dorchester House, 1927, vol. 2, p. 39, cat. 174 , pl. CLIX; Country Life, 7 November 1947, p. 929 repr. over the fireplace; WGC, p. 174, pl. 34c.
Condition/Conservation
Impasto flattened by lining. Pale coloured ground, probably applied by a colourman; it does not extend to the edges of the original canvas. The ground is composed of chalk with some lead white bound in oil and there are small additions of earths (yellow and red ochre and a bone black or umber) and possibly some glass. The ground seems to have been applied in two layers, possibly with an intermediate sealing layer and with no identified discrete priming layer. No dead colouring has been identified and the paint seems to have been applied with only one or two layers in the lights. Several pentimenti: a slight adjustment to the position of the large tree at the right and also the roots of the tree resting on the stone ledge. The foreground foliage at the right hand bank has also been reduced slightly and the log with the figures appears to have been extended slightly into the river. There is possible scratching through of the upper surface to the underpaint to be seen through two of the tree trunks at the left. Indentations along the margins suggest the painting may have originally been framed whilst the paint was still wet.
Updated by Compiler
2022-01-18 00:00:00