Pastoral Landscape with a Tower

Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
Date
c.1754-56 (undated)
Medium
Black chalk and stump on grey paper, heightened with white
Dimensions
Metric: 125 x 127 mm
Imperial: 4 7/8 x 5 in.
Accession Number
RP-T-1959-162
Wilson Online Reference
D242
Description
Within a roundel an Italian landscape is shown, with a shepherd and his flock in the foreground and a park to the left with high cypresses and stone pines. To the right there are a house and a tall tower amongst the trees, with a distant mountain beyond.
Exhibited
London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-3 (56)
Provenance
Nathaniel Hone (1718-1784); [...] P.& D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1959; purchased through the F.G. Waller Fund
Signature/inscription
Inscribed verso (see Verso inscriptions)
Collectors' marks
[1] Lower centre: Nathaniel Hone the elder (Lugt 2793)
Verso inscriptions
[1] Centre left, pencil: 59:162
[2] Centre left: RMUS in oval
[3] Lower left: Blue cross
Related Drawings
D243 Italian Landscape with two Figures in a Park, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Critical commentary
As David Solkin notes, it is hard to be precise in dating drawings like this and D261 Ariccia, Tate, London, which are probably based only vaguely, if indeed at all, on actual Italian scenes. They appear to be finished vignettes, produced for sale and are executed in an abbreviated form of Wilson's usual chalk technique, relying almost exclusively on the use of stump rather than line for the interior modelling of the forms. He seems to have begun working in this manner only towards the end of his stay in Italy. The roundel format suggests William Lock's twelve Small circular Landscapes, Views in the Environs of Rome, taken in the years 1754 and 1756 (sold Sotheby's, 3 May 1821, lot 386). This roundel, however, does not seem to have belonged to Lock.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
26786
Bibliography
Solkin 1982, p. 176
Location featured in work
Perhaps a distant view of Vesuvius is intended
More Information
The roundels are exact and were drawn with compasses. The extreme finesse of technique confirms the dating to the later Italian period.
Condition/Conservation
Image diameter: 105 mm (4 1/8 in.) White heightening is used on greyish beige possibly laid paper, on square card (the paper is likely to be laid but it is very difficult to make out any laid lines amid the creases of laying down). Around the edges, the card and paper are very close, with just a narrow border, approx 3 mm wide all round. On the reverse, fading marks look as if the card may have been mounted side by side with D261 Ariccia, Tate, London.