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Holt Bridge on the River Dee
Birmingham Museums Trust
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Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Holt Bridge on the River Dee
c.1761-62 (undated)
Black chalk. grey wash and white bodycolour on buff prepared paper, laid down on grey card
335 x 523 mm
13 3/8 x 20 11/16 in.
1948P46
D358
Worthing 1960 (2); London 1973-74 (36); Arts Council in collaboration with Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, British Watercolours 1760-1930, from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1981 (1); Tercentenary 2014 (74)
Paul Sandby, his sale, 3 May 1811 (97 View on the Banks of the Dee in Cheshire), bt Thane together with In the Garden at Lericci, for £9-10s; William Esdaile; Prof. J. Isaacs; Spink & Sons, London; bt by Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, 1948
Signed lower left corner: RW [the R reversed]
[1] Lower left corner: Paul Sandby (Lugt 2112)
[2] WE No 2354
[1] Lower centre, pencil: - Holt + Farndon showing the Old Bridge
[2] Lower left pencil: Bought by William Esdaile 1811. Bought at W.E.'s sale by J.A.
[3] Lower left corner, black ink in Esdaile's hand: 1811 Paul Sandby's sale WE N2354
[4] Lower left centre, black ink in Esdaile's hand: Wilson
[5] Lower right, pencil: P46'48
[1] In file from undated exhibition: National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth
[2] From Spink and Son - mentions note in pencil, verso, 'Bought at W. Esdaile's by J. K.A.'
Paul Sandby watercolour, Christie's 17 November 1981 (98); Christie's 25 April 1995 (13)
P110 Holt Bridge on the River Dee, The National Gallery, London
This drawing corresponds closely to P110 Holt Bridge on the River Dee, National Gallery, London. with the foreground figures the only significant change in the composition. As Robin Simon has observed, the drawing is unusual in Wilson's later work in being both highly finished and also closely related to an oil painting. Its precise purpose, therefore, remains something of an enigma.
46'48
Ford 1951, pp. 36, 62, no. 70; WGC, p. 175, pl. 36c; Egerton 1998, rev. 2000, pp. 328-29, fig. 1; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 261
Paul Sandby, the first recorded owner, greatly admired Wilson and latterly bought drawings from him above their asking price in order to relieve his poverty in old age.
06/12/2016