Rome from the Villa Madama (Distant View of Rome from Monte Mario)

Rome from the Villa Madama (Distant View of Rome from Monte Mario)
Rome from the Villa Madama (Distant View of Rome from Monte Mario)
Rome from the Villa Madama (Distant View of Rome from Monte Mario)
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Rome from the Villa Madama (Distant View of Rome from Monte Mario)
Date
c.1763-65
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 100.3 x 135.3 cm
Imperial: 39 1/2 x 53 1/4 in.
Accession Number
4879
Wilson Online Reference
P56B
Description
The view is towards the Alban Hills from a vantage point on Monte Mario popularised by Wilson's predecessor, Jan Frans van Bloemen (l'Orizzonte). To the right, among the trees, is the Villa Madama, beyond it is Castel Sant'Angelo and on the horizon, the cupolas of Santa Maria Maggiore are visible. Just in front of it, the setting sun is reflected off the façade of Santissima Trinità dei Monti.
Exhibited
SA 1765 (156) and/or RA 1770 (202) - a version; BI 1814 (210/214 - A View of Rome, lent Miss Brooke); London, Royal Academy, Old Masters 1903 (38); London 1925 (39); Manchester 1925 (51); London 1934 (249 - Distant View of Rome); Toronto Art Gallery, Old Masters, 1950 (49); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (110)
Provenance
Probably the version bought by the Marquis of Tavistock for 100 guineas; Miss Brooke; Sir Frederick Cook, Bart, Doughty House, Richmond Surrey; by descent to Sir Herbert Cook, Bart; bt by National Gallery of Canada, 1948
Signature/inscription
Signed on the stone ledge, lower left: RW [monogram R reversed]
Subject
The topographical account of contemporary Rome is reflected and contextualised in antiquity by details such as the funeral stele in the foreground.
Related Drawings
D225 The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground, Private Collection, England
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Works by Other Artists
[1] Jan Frans van Bloemen, l'Orizzonte (1662-1749), View of Rome from Monte Mario, 1736, ex-Delegazione Montedison, Rome, Sotheby's Milan, 8 June 1994 (268)
[2] Jan Frans van Bloemen l'Orizzonte, A Panoramic View of Rome observed from Monte Mario, Sotheby's London, 8 Dec 2010 (37)
[3] Ford 1951, pl. 40 reproduces a comparable drawing rightly attributed to a pupil.
Critical commentary
This is one of several known repetitions of P56, painted in 1753 for the Earl of Dartmouth. It is much more heavily modelled than P56 and executed in a wider range of colours. Other differences are the greater details and the trees at left and right. Ford (1951) thought there were reasons to suggest that it was painted after Wilson's return to England. According to Edward Edwards (1808), a version [probably this one] exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1765 was bought by the Marquis of Tavistock. Farington also recorded going to Bryant's Gallery in May 1796 with Sir George Beaumont and Nathaniel Dance 'to see the View of Rome by Wilson, which he sold to the Marquiss of Tavistock, 30 years ago for 100 gs.'
Bibliography
Edwards 1808, p. 79; Farington Diary, vol. 2, p. 559 (26 May 1796); Catalogue 1814, p. 22; Cunningham 1830, pp. 198-99; The Athenaeum, 10 January 1903, pp. 56-57; M.W. Brockwell, Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Frederick Cook, vol. 3, 1915, p. 17, no. 402, repr.; Commemorative Catalogue 1934 (114); Ford 1951, p. 34; Ford 1952, p. 311; WGC, p. 218 (version 1 of pl. 107a-b); Solkin 1982, p. 219; R. Beresford, Catalogue of European Paintings, Art Gallery of New South Wales, vol. 1, 2014, pp. 149-52); Solkin 2015, pp. 212-13
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
More Information
As noted in Solkin 2015, Wilson was the only British landscapist with direct experience of the fabled sites of Roman antiquity until the return of William Marlow from Europe in 1766.
Updated by Compiler
2021-02-18 00:00:00