Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 26(v) and 27(r)

Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 26(v) and 27(r)
Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 26(v) and 27(r)
Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 26(v) and 27(r)
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Italian Sketchbook - Drawings 26(v) and 27(r)
Date
1754
Medium
Black chalk heightened with white on medium, rough, blued white wove paper, bound in vellum
Dimensions
Metric: 281 x 210 mm (each sheet)
Imperial: 11 1/16 x 8 1/4 in. (each sheet)
Accession Number
B1977.14.359 v26 & r27
Wilson Online Reference
D280/26
Description
26(v): Study of a tower in Durham Yard
27(r): Study of a tree with two women below in the left foreground
Provenance
Oldfield Bowles; given to Sir George Beaumont, 1784; thence by descent until 1963, when sold to Paul Mellon
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Subject
26(v): Durham Yard, south of the Strand, London, took its name from Durham House built in the 14th century for the Bishops of Durham. In 1660 it was largely demolished and the residual space, Durham Court, became an area occupied by small traders and artisans. By the mid-18th century it had declined into a virtual slum prior to becoming the site for the Adam brothers' Adelphi, begun in 1768. The ruined tower in the drawing had probably been part of the chapel of Durham House. There are pencil drawings of it by Joseph Farington (who like Hodges studied under Wilson in the mid-1760s) on pages 3 and 61 of his 1765 sketchbook at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Related Drawings
27(r):
D280/5 Italian Sketchbook - Drawings, 5(v) Study of a Tree
D280/13 Italian Sketchbook - Drawings, 14(r) Study of a Woman reclining on a Bed
Related Paintings
P145 The White Monk - II The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and other versions
Related Works by Other Artists
26(v): D280/24 Italian Sketchbook - Drawings, 24(v): William Hodges, Study in Durham Yard
Critical commentary
26(v) is a smaller and less detailed study of the tower than 24(v) drawn by Wilson's pupil, William Hodges (D280/24), but taken from the same viewpoint.
27(r) Clements noted the similarities of the tree to that shown in 5(v) (D280/5) and of the right hand figure to the girl featured in 14(r) (D280/13). She compared the two figures with the women appearing in The White Monk - II (P145 and other versions).
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
Object ID: 6363
Bibliography
Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 1, pp. 25-26; vol. 2, p. 47
More Information
Only two sketchbooks by Wilson have survived - the present one (D280-D280/33) and D53-D53/81 Studies and Designs by R. Wilson done in Rome in the Year MDCCLII, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (E.3586-1922).
Updated by Compiler
2016-08-31 00:00:00