Celadon and Amelia

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Celadon and Amelia
Celadon and Amelia
Celadon and Amelia
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
title=Credit line
Artist
William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801) after Wilson
Title
Celadon and Amelia
Date
Published 10 June 1766
Medium
Line engraving and etching on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions
Metric: Sheet: 460 x 565 mm; plate: 445 x 549 mm
Imperial: Sheet: 18 1/8 x 22 1/4 in.; plate: 17 1/2 x 21 5/8 in.
Accession Number
B1977.14.14566
Wilson Online Reference
E18
Description
Celadon at the centre, looks to the heavens with his arms outstretched in disbelief and grief; Amelia lies dead at his feet. In the background stands a house before which a shepherd drives his sheep up a hill, at the summit of which is a fortress. To the right, a bay with stormy seas and a broken bridge are discernible in the flash of lightning.
Exhibited
Tercentenary 2014 (101)
Provenance
Acquired 1977
Signature/inscription
Lettered below the image, left: 'R.Wilson pinxit Londini.' | 'The tempest caught them on the tender walk, | _____________ from his void embrace, - | Mysterious Heaven! that moment to the ground, | A blacken'd corse, was struck the beauteous maid.'; lower centre: 'CELADON and AMELIA | from an ORIGINAL PICTURE, in the Collection of Wm. Lock Esqr. | Publsh'd June 10th. 1766 as the Act directs, by Wm. Woollett in Long's Court, Leicester Fields, & Ryland & Bryer at the King's Arms in Cornhill, LONDON.'; lower right: 'Browne Aqua forti fecit. Woollett Sculpt.' | 'But who can paint the lover, as he stood, | Pierc'd by severe amazement, hating life, | Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of woe! | Thompson's Summer, v. 1191. 1214.'
Inscribed in blue pencil lower right: Woollett
Verso inscriptions
1) Graphite., centre left. 'F/T/-'
2) Graphite, lower left 'IR-784/ 555 / No. 114.2 / no/35'
Subject
The subject derives from The Seasons by the Scottish poet and playwright, James Thomson (1700-1748). Seven lines of verse from Summer, first published in 1727, are arranged to the left and right of the title.
Related Drawings
D135 Broken Trees on a Mountain, The British Museum
D362 Study for Celadon and Amelia, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Critical commentary
The engraving is of an unlocated painting exhibited by Wilson at the Society of Artists in 1765 (157), entitled A Summer Storm with the Story of the Two Lovers from Thompson (Celadon and Amelia). Its original owner is cited as William Lock of Norbury, the artist's travelling companion from Venice to Rome 15 years previously. Solkin has described the subject as a modern, English, Christian equivalent to the 'Destruction of the Children of Niobe' (see P90 and other versions), noting that such a moral theme was well suited to a landscape painter of Wilson's Grand Style pretensions. The design appropriately recalls storm scenes by Gaspard Dughet and mountain views by Salvator Rosa, both of whom were admired by Thomson.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
Object ID: 40373
Bibliography
Booth Notes Doc. 4; Booth Notes Doc. 7; Fagan 1885, p. 26 cat. LVII, 6th State; WGC, p. 165 under pl. 24b; Solkin 1982, pp. 220-21 (entry on one of several impressions at the British Museum); Clayton 1997, pp. 190, 193, 205; S. Mitchell, 'James Thomson's Picture Collection and British History Painting', Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 23, no. 1 (2011), pp. 127-28; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 284
More Information
WGC notes that a line engraving of the composition, published in France by J.J. Avril (1771-1835) and derived from the Woollett engraving, in earlier impressions has the name of Wilson as painter but substitutes that of Vernet in later impressions.