Landscape with Vesuvius

Landscape with Vesuvius
Landscape with Vesuvius
Landscape with Vesuvius
Royal Academy of Arts, London
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Landscape with Vesuvius
Date
Dated lower right: 1756
Medium
Black and white chalk on laid prepared light brown paper
Dimensions
Metric: 96 x 98 mm
Imperial: 3 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.
Accession Number
03/1876
Wilson Online Reference
D250
Description
Three men with two mules can be seen halted in a field before a volcano, beside a fourth figure who sits on a stone to the right
Exhibited
Tercentenary 2014 (49)
Provenance
William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821 (386); William Esdaile (1758-1837); Wellesley sale 1866 (748)
Signature/inscription
Signed lower left: R.W.f.
Inscribed lower right: WE
Collectors' marks
[1] Recto lower right corner: William Esdaile (Lugt 2617)
Related Drawings
D53/45 Studies and Designs done in Rome in the Year 1752, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, p. 45
D249 Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Related Prints
E60/24 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Vesuvius, The British Museum
Critical commentary
D250 and D249 both belonged to William Lock (1732-1810) who very probably visited Naples and the surrounding area with Wilson in 1752. Martin Postle has suggested that two such elegantly framed and presented pieces were created by the artist as a souvenir of their expedition to the crater of Vesuvius, also recorded in D53 Wilson's 1752 Sketchbook, Victoria and Albert Museum. The circular framing recurs on a larger scale in D338 A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection), which was also owned by Lock.
Bibliography
E.B. Jupp, Royal Academy Catalogue, vol. 1; WGC, p. 37; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 240