Landscape and Figures

Landscape and Figures
Landscape and Figures
Landscape and Figures
National Galleries of Scotland / Photography by Antonia Reeve
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Landscape and Figures
Date
c.1752-54 (undated)
Medium
Black and white chalk on brown paper laid down
Dimensions
Metric: 129 x 215 mm
Imperial: 5 1/16 x 8 7/16 in.
Accession Number
D 1356
Wilson Online Reference
D179
Description
In the centre foreground two figures are seen on the shore of a lake. In the middle distance other figures are discernible, perhaps hunters with hounds.
Provenance
Paul Sandby [...] David Laing Bequest to the Royal Scottish Academy; transferred 1910
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; inscribed on mount (see 'Mount inscriptions')
Collectors' marks
[1] Lower left corner: Paul Sandby (Lugt 2112)
[2] Lower left corner: unknown
Mount inscriptions
[1] Inscribed in pencil on the 19th century mount, lower right: Wilson
Critical commentary
The choice of media is one which Wilson seems to have particularly favoured. According to Ozias Humphrey, 'Mr Wilson says the best and most expeditious mode of drawing landskips from nature is with black chalk and a stump on brownish paper touched with white' (Whitley 1700-1799, vol I, p.385, quoted in Ford 1951, p. 26)
Bibliography
Whitley 1700-1799, vol I, p. 385; Ford 1951, pp. 26, 35 & 47; Baker 2011, pp. 413 & 414 repr.
More Information
For Sandby's connections with Wilson (with whom he sketched and for whom he disposed of drawings), see Ford 1951, pp. 35 & 47