Portrait of Francesco Zuccarelli

Portrait of Francesco Zuccarelli
Portrait of Francesco Zuccarelli
Portrait of Francesco Zuccarelli
Tate, London 2014
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Portrait of Francesco Zuccarelli
Date
1751
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 49.5 x 41.9 cm
Imperial: 19 1/2 x 16 1/2 in.
Accession Number
N03727
Wilson Online Reference
P37
Exhibited
London 1925 (19 - Venetian Gentleman); Machynlleth 1937 (2); London, Royal Academy, 1960 Italian Art and Britain (158); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (59); Tercentenary 2014 (45)
Provenance
With P.E. Rossi, Bury Street, London; purchased by the National Gallery, 1923
Signature/inscription
Signed and dated right: R. Wilson f | 1751
Subject
The sitter was identified as the artist, Francesco Zuccarelli, by Michael Levey in 1959. In a letter to Admiral Thomas Smith written in Venice on 8 June 1751 [Wilson 1751] Wilson proudly referred to his meeting with Zuccarelli, one of Europe's best-known rococo landscape painters: [...] 'what tells better for my own private satisfaction is that Sigr Zuccarelli a famous Painter of this place made me Offer of his painting me a picture for a portrait of himself which I am doing with great pleasure'. Zuccarelli is known to have played a major role in persuading Wilson to change from portraiture to landscape painting before he left Venice for Britain. There he stayed from 1752 for ten years and returned in 1765, remaining until 1771. His career in Britain as a landscapist was successful, and in 1768 he became a Founder Member of the Royal Academy. Zuccarelli's rococo style of painting was seen by many contemporaries as more approachable than Wilson's seemingly rigid, classical manner.
Related Paintings
P35 River and Farmhouse -I , Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Critical commentary
Combining a highly individualised likeness with a graceful sense of informality, the portrait depends heavily on contemporary Venetian models and above all on Rosalba Carriera's celebrated pastel portraits. While the treatment of the neck-cloth and waistcoat resembles handling in earlier portraits such as P23 Portrait of a British Naval Captain, Castle Hill Collection, the softer and more luminous treatment of the head is surely the result of Wilson's modification of his earlier methods through the influence of Venetian painting. The left profile is ambiguous, with a rounder jaw showing in the underpaint.
Bibliography
Letter 1751; WGC, pp. 24, 62, 118, 155-56, pl. 9b as A Venetian Gentleman; M. Levey, 'Wilson and Zuccarelli at Venice', Burlington Magazine, vol. 101, April 1959, pp. 139-143, fig. 26; Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 3, fig. 3; sale cat., The Lyttelton Papers, Sotheby's London, 12 December 1978, p.101 (cat. 79); Solkin, 1982, p. 177; Apollo, June 1953; Wilson and Europe 2014, p.238
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
More Information
On the back of an old photograph belonging to the Tate is the stamp of a Genoese photographer, indicating an Italian provenance. The only other portraits Wilson is known to have painted in Venice are one for the German Ambassador and Mr Sackville 'which he is to send to my lord Middlesex'. The signature has been doubted on account of the short s. However, there are examples of this in drawings made both before and after 1751.
Condition/Conservation
Dimensions of frame: 62.4 x 55.4 cm (24 9/16 x 21 13/16 in.) Kate Lowry has noted: Red ground. Left profile may have been strengthened later. Pentiment on left side of coat opening shows orange paint beneath.