87 Items No items selected
1 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 87
Ariccia - II
Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wilts.
Larger Image Select Item Email Link Print Feedback
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Ariccia - II
c.1760 (undated)
Oil on canvas
47.7 x 73.7 cm
18 3/4 x 29 in.
90
P87
Between framing trees left and right, an arched tree trunk lies across a stream. In front of it a drover herds his goats in a patch of light. Buildings, perhaps intended as a convent, are seen in the wooded background and a milestone stands in the lower left corner.
Birmingham 1948-49 (54 - A Fallen Tree Across a Stream); London 1949 (53); London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83 (75)
Probably bought by Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke (d. 1794); thence by descent
Signed on milestone at left: RW [monogram, the R reversed]
Competently painted but the foliage colours are unusually differentiated by Wilson's standards.
Located between the lakes of Nemi and Albano on the Via Appia Nuova, south-east of Rome, Ariccia was celebrated for its groves, thought to have been the hunting-grounds of the goddess Diana. The area had been a haunt of Wilson's exemplar, Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675).
D53/73 Studies and Designs done in Rome in the Year 1752, p. 73 - Study of a fallen Tree, 1752, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
See 'Links' tab
P46 Ariccia - I, Tate, London & other versions
P61 The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire & other versions
This painting differs from P46 Ariccia - I and other versions in having a drover with his dog, goats and sheep on the road and a fallen tree trunk right. This flock and drover are similar to those depicted in P61 The Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii in the same collection and other versions. The lighting effect on the motif in the far left distance through the trees is entrancing and typical of Wilson at his best.
G. Richardson, Aedes Pembrochianae, London, 1774, p. 42 (A Landscape) [?]; WGC, p. 194, pl. 68b; S. Pembroke, A Catalogue of the Paintings and Drawings in the Collection at Wilton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1968, p. 36, cat. 90; Solkin 1982, pp. 191-92; F. Russell, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Wilton House, 2021, pp. 119-120, cat. 204
P61, P87 and P87A together with a pastoral by Francesco Zuccarelli form part of a set of four paintings at Wilton House in identical rococo-style carved and gilded wooden frames. George Richardson in his Aedes Pembrochianae (1774) mentions a 'Landscape by Wilson', which could be any of the first three.

Unglazed. Cleaned in 1936 and 1965. Relined 2006 by Richard Watkiss and restored by Simon Foulkes. Stretcher size recorded by him: 19 1/8 x 29 1/4 in.; 48.5 x 74.3 cm. Kate Lowry has noted: Foliage typical of Wilson and composition works well.
21/12/2021