Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills

Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills
Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills
Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills
Collection of Richard L. Feigen
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills
Date
1751-52 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 58.5 x 73.7 cm
Imperial: 23 x 29 in.
Wilson Online Reference
P42
Exhibited
BI 1814 (159/163 - An Italian Scene, lent Rev. Dr. Marlow); London, Royal Academy, 1964 European Masters of the eighteenth Century (114); Kenwood 1974 (145); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (61); New York 2010 (3)
Provenance
Perhaps sold by Wilson to Mr Benson, tutor of Ralph Howard; Revd Dr Michael Marlow, President of St John's College, Oxford; Mrs Marlow; her nephew, the Revd G.T. Clare, Bainton Rectory, Driffield, Yorkshire; 1862 sold to A. Coventry, Edinburgh for 180 gns; his great-nephew, Commander Creighton-Maitland; 1948 with Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; Peter Temple by 1952; 2010 with Feigen New York
Subject
A capriccio or imaginary view - a kind of subject often painted by Wilson from now on.
Critical commentary
The composition, style and handling are much indebted to eighteenth-century Venetian art, notably that of Marco Ricci (1676-1730). This is probably the result of Wilson's stay in Venice in 1751 and the opportunity it afforded to study the Riccis in the collection of the British Consul, Joseph Smith. As pointed out by David Solkin, the style is also close to the two banditti subjects painted for Ralph Howard in early 1752 (P51 & P50) and like them may have been painted shortly after the artist's arrival in Rome. According to the Revd G.T. Clare (see provenance) William Beckford 'was much pleased with this painting.'
Bibliography
Catalogue 1814, p. 21; Ford 1952, pp. 307-8, fig.8; WGC, p. 204, pl. 84a; Solkin 1982, p. 179; Feigen 2010, unpaginated
Link to WG Constable Archive Record