River, Sea Coast and circular Ruin

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Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond

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Artist

Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)

Title

River, Sea Coast and circular Ruin

Date

c.1765 (undated)

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Metric: 76.2 x 98 cm
Imperial: 30 x 39 in.

Collection

Private Collection, England

Accession Number

BB20

Wilson Online Reference

P92A

Description

A classical landscape, with a man and two women conversing by a lake or river on a high bank near an open sarcophagus with antique medallion motif in the left foreground. To the right are two arches of a ruined bridge with a ruined circular building above and behind. A carefully observed group of buildings with a campanile appear among trees to the left before a mountain in the distance. A prominent tower or light-house on a cliff-top illuminated by diagonal rays of sunlight beyond overlooks a wide expanse of sea with ships distantly discernible.

Exhibited

BI 1814 (158); Brighton 1920 (13); London 1925 (81 - Vale of Narni); Manchester 1925 (68); Exeter 1946 (58); Paris 1953 (93 - Paysage italien); Leicester 1953 (81 - Italian landscape); London 1968 (13); Conwy 2009 (16); Weston 2011 (18); Gainsborough House 2014 (unnumbered)

Provenance

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

Signature/inscription

Signed in monogram on stone at centre right: RW [the R reversed]

Subject

The exact location of the view has been much debated and the scene is almost certainly a capriccio centred on the so-called Temple of Venus at Baia near Naples (see Critical Commentary below). The marble sarcophagus in the foreground is very much an invention of Wilson's and cannot be considered conventional in form, with its square shape, flat open top and oval decoration.

Related Drawings

D271 Bay of Baiae - Temple of Venus, Victoria & Albert Museum (Dyce.647)

Related Prints

E64 William Sherlock after Wilson, River, Sea-Coast and circular Ruin ('Morning'), The British Museum (1873,0809.1415) and other impressions
E72/14 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Temple of Venus with Part of the Bay of Baiae, The British Museum (1854,0708.71) and other impressions
E72/40 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Landscape (River, Sea Coast and circular Ruin), The British Museum (1854,0708.97) and other impressions
E73 Samuel Reynolds after Wilson, Morning, The British Museum (1879,0614.334) and other impressions

Versions

See 'Links' tab

Critical commentary

The composition has been known under several titles, notably The Temple of Venus at Baiae but at first sight the temple does not seem to be the same building as in D271 or in the famous Turner painting of the Bay of Baiae in Tate, London (N00505). However, Robin Simon has recently observed that the building is in fact the same (actually baths rather than a temple) but seen from the opposite side, revealing the ruined open aspect of the structure. He further has identified the landscape in the middle distance as resembling the view looking out from the Bay of Pozzuoli and the town of Baia towards Naples - an area much favoured by Wilson. The present version was mistakenly described as Vale of Narni when exhibited in 1925 at the Tate Gallery. It is typical of those Wilson produced in the decade or so after his return to London from Italy in 1757. It retains the freshness and delicacy of handling that mark the canvases painted in Italy, together with the brilliance and heightening of colours that are characteristic of his pictures c.1758-65.

Bibliography

Booth Notes Doc. 5, p. 2 (A Temple in Ruins & View of Bay of Naples); Booth Notes, Doc. 9 (47); H.D. Roberts, Connoisseur, May 1920; WGC, pp. 47, 75, 93, 217, pl.106a (image mistakenly illustrates P92B); Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 16, BB20; Lord 2009, p. 55, no. 16; Williams 2011, p. 29, repr.; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 283

Link to WG Constable Archive Record

WGC/1/1/123

Updated by Compiler

10/03/2021

River, Sea Coast and circular Ruin

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