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    300 years
    "Solkin 1982" Is linked to these Works of Art
    of 176

    St George's Garden…

    St George's Garden…
    St George's Garden…
    St George's Garden…
    Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    St George's Garden, Venice (Part of the Giudecca from the Island of San Giorgio, Venice)
    Date
    c.1751 (undated)
    Medium
    Red chalk and bistre wash
    Dimensions
    Metric: 153 x 197 mm
    Imperial: 6 x 7 3/4 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, England
    Accession Number
    RF57
    Wilson Online Reference
    D18
    Exhibited
    Exeter 1946 (35); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (13)
    Provenance
    William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821; Marianne Ford; thence by descent
    Signature/inscription
    Inscribed by Wilson along the upper edge in red chalk: Venice over against St George's Garden. Built | before Venice
    Techniques and materials
    Brinsley Ford proposed that a knowledge of Francesco Zuccarelli's drawings might have suggested Wilson's choice of media since the combination of red chalk and bistre wash 'is often found in that artist's drawings, whereas this use of it by Wilson is unique' (Ford 1951, p. 51).
    Subject
    In the 1982 Tate exhibition catalogue, David Solkin argued that topographical evidence does not support Wilson's inscribed title and that the drawing rather depicts part of the Giudecca from the Island of San Giorgio. In the 18th century, medieval towers of the type depicted no longer existed at St George's Gardens but were still to be seen along the eastern tip of the Giudecca, just across a canal from the small island of San Giorgio, from where Wilson presumably took his view.
    Related Drawings
    D18A Tower on a Mole, The British Museum (1881,0212.57)
    Bibliography
    Ford 1951, p. 51, pl. 2; Solkin 1982, p. 154 ; Walpole Society 1998-1, p. 69, RF57
    Condition/Conservation
    Much disfigured by foxing, especially in the sky

    Work of Art

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) A Tower on a Mole, The British Museum

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 7 March - 5 April 1946

    Biographies

    • William Lock 'of Norbury' (1732-1810)
    • Sir Brinsley Ford (1908-1999)
    • Marianne Booth, Lady Ford (1767-1849)
    • Captain Richard Ford (1860-1940)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Brinsley Ford and other authors, The Ford Collection
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