A Ruin, Arch at Kew Gardens

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City & County of Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection

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Artist

Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)

Title

A Ruin, Arch at Kew Gardens

Date

c.1760 (undated)

Medium

Black chalk and stump over graphite on smooth white paper

Dimensions

Metric: 283 x 426 mm
Imperial: 11 1/8 x 16 3/4 in.

Collection

Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea. To license image, click here.

Accession Number

GV DF 2062

Wilson Online Reference

D357A

Description

The scene is set in Kew Gardens. To the left an artist is drawing and in the right middle ground, there is a female nude at whom two boys peer over the railings, upper right. Further away, beneath and through the arch a standing figure and sculpture on a pedestal are visible.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy Primitives to Picasso : An Exhibition from Municipal and University Collections in Great Britain, 1962 (360); London 1973-74 (33); Swansea 1999

Provenance

Joseph Farington; possibly W.E. Esdaile; his sale Christie's 21 March 1838 (781 - The Roman Ruins in Kew Gardens; heightened with brilliant effect (£1-5-0)); John Deffett Francis; presented to Swansea between 1876 and 1887

Signature/inscription

Unsigned; no inscription

Techniques and materials

A framing line has been drawn horizontally across the bottom, partly obscured by the mount

Collectors' marks

[1] Brown ink monogram verso: Joseph Farington (Lugt 1453)

Verso inscriptions

[1] In brown ink and Farington's hand: Wilson

Subject

Kew Gardens lie on the opposite side of the Thames from Syon House. Kew Park was enlarged and embellished by Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales from 1759, when the arch was built 'to make a passage for carriages and cattle, over one of the principal walks of the garden' [and] 'to imitate antiquity'. (W. Chambers, 'A Description of the Palace and Gardens at Kew, the seat of the Princess Dowager of Wales', Royal Magazine, September 1763, p. 154).

Related Drawings

D357/1 The Ruined Arch at Kew (recto), Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
D357/2 Sketch of an Urn (verso) Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Related Prints

E72/17 Thomas Hastings after Wilson,Villa Borghese, The British Museum (1854,0708.74) and other impressions

Versions

See 'Links' tab

Related Paintings

P108 The Arch in Kew Gardens, Private Collection, England
P108A Kew Gardens, Surrey, Ruined Arch, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery

Critical commentary

Probably a development of P108. A nude female figure is added to the right and various pieces of antique stonework are scattered in the foreground. Additional figures appear in the background looking over the fence. D357A may have been the drawing 'The Roman Ruins in Kew Gardens, heightened with brilliant effect' mentioned by Ford as selling for £1 5s. at the Esdaile sale, Christie's 21 March 1838 (781). The broad and rather smudgy style, however, would also accord with the work's having been executed on the spot and left unfinished in places. This might also explain the exaggerated perspective of the urn at the upper left and that of the shadow beneath the arch itself. A related etching of 1822 by Thomas Hastings (E72/17) incorrectly located the arch at the Villa Borghese, Rome.

Bibliography

Cooper 1948 2, p. 348; Ford 1951, p. 62, no. 71; Guide to the Collections of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1970, p. 16, repr. pl. III; Parris 1973, pp. 30-31; Themes and Variations 1999, p. 25 repr.

Condition/Conservation

Patches of discolouration are evident, e.g. round the figures to the right of the arch. Faint traces of graphite in the sky at the upper left might suggest that the paper has been re-used.

Updated by Compiler

06/12/2016

A Ruin, Arch at Kew Gardens

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