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Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
Royal Academy of Arts, London
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Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
Dated lower right: 1756
Black and white chalk on laid paper which has been painted a light brown colour
96 x 100 mm
3 3/4 x 4 in.
03/1877
D249
Tercentenary 2014 (50)
William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821 (386); William Esdaile (1758-1837); Wellesley sale 1866 (748)
Signed lower left: R.W.f.
Inscribed lower right: WE
[1] Recto lower right corner: William Esdaile (Lugt 2617)
D250 Landscape with Vesuvius, Royal Academy of Arts, London (03/1876)
D338 A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection)
E60/24 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Three Men with two Mules halting in a Field below a Volcano, The British Museum and other impressions
E60/35 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Vesuvius, The British Museum and other impressions
John Downman, The Crater of Vesuvius, watercolour, 1774, Tate, London (T10174)
D249 and D250 both belonged to William Lock (1732-1810) who very probably visited Naples and the surrounding area with Wilson in 1752. Martin Postle has suggested that two such elegantly framed and presented pieces were created by the artist as a souvenir of their expedition to the crater of Vesuvius, also recorded in D53 Wilson's 1752 Sketchbook, Victoria and Albert Museum. The circular framing recurs on a larger scale in D338 A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection), which was also owned by Lock.
E.B. Jupp, Royal Academy Catalogue, vol. 1; WGC, p. 37; Spencer-Longhurst 2012, p. 65, fig. 36; Wilson and Europe 2014, pp. 240-241