River and Fishermen

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River and Fishermen

Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond

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Artist

Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)

Title

River and Fishermen

Date

Later 1770s

Medium

Oil on wood

Dimensions

Metric: 12.1 x 14 cm
Imperial: 4 3/4 x 5 1/2 in.

Collection

Private Collection, England

Accession Number

BB33

Wilson Online Reference

P189

Description

Two men are fishing from the bank of a meandering river in the centre foreground. In the middle distance on the right two women walk towards a church.

Exhibited

Brighton 1920 (26 - Italian Landscape); Exeter 1946 (56 - Men fishing); London 1968 (8); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (144); Conwy 2009 (27); Weston 2011 (29); Gainsborough House 2014 (unnumbered)

Provenance

Benjamin Booth; The Revd R.S. Booth; Lady Ford; Richard Ford; Sir Francis Clare Ford; John G. Ford; Brinsley Ford; thence by descent

Signature/inscription

Unsigned; no inscription

Techniques and materials

Unusual among Wilson's paintings as being on panel, this was quite probably one of the old coach panels on which he is known to have been forced to paint on for want of materials at the end of his life.

Subject

While perhaps based on nature, the scene is almost certainly imaginary evoking the landscape of Italy

Related Prints

E72/20 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Italian [sic] (River and Fishermen), The British Museum (1854,0708.77) and other impressions

Critical commentary

Figures and a tower with an Italianate belvedere are part of Wilson's standard repertoire, harking back to earlier compositions, and much repeated in his old age. Thomas Hastings, who etched the work stated that it was 'immediately from Nature' and 'an out-door sketch' (Hastings 1825, p. 15).

Bibliography

Booth Notes, Doc. 9 (1); WGC, pp. 92, 109, 215, pl. 102b; Solkin 1982, p. 248; Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 18, BB33; Lord 2009, p.60, no. 27; Williams 2011, pp. 40-41, repr.

Link to WG Constable Archive Record

WGC/1/1/117

Condition/Conservation

Thickly painted on a small and crudely fashioned panel - probably a cheap coach panel

Updated by Compiler

09/11/2018

River and Fishermen

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