Head of an old Man

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Head of an old Man
Head of an old Man
Head of an old Man
Private Collection
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Head of an old Man
Date
c.1752 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 49 x 38 cm [unseen]
Imperial: 19 1/8 x 15 in. [unseen]
Collection
Location Unknown
Wilson Online Reference
P38
Exhibited
BI 1853 (148); London, J.A. Tooth Galleries 1951 (5, lent D.J. Lucey)
Provenance
Painted in Rome before 14 November 1752; given by Wilson to Ralph Howard (Viscount Wicklow from 1785) together with seven other paintings ordered by him and described by the artist as 'a head to match the Capuchin' (P39 Head of a Capuchin Monk, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery); Earls of Wicklow; perhaps 'A Head of St Jerome - Wilson', in an undated inventory (pre-1820), though this may refer to P39; sold with the contents of Shelton Abbey, Arklow, Co. Wicklow, Ireland at Sotheby's London, 23 October 1950 (1595 as by Denner); bt Father D.J. Lucey; Sotheby's 1 December 1954 (146), bt Leger; bt by the Welsh Steel Company, later subsumed by British Steel
Related Paintings
P39 Head of a Capuchin, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery
Critical commentary
One of two heads (see also P39) painted vaguely in the manner of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1683-1754), who became Director of the Venetian Academy in 1750, the year of Wilson's arrival in Venice. Prints after his head studies, rich in chiaroscuro, were eagerly acquired by collectors from England.
Bibliography
Ford May 1951, pp. 165-66, fig. 28; WGC, p.156, pl. 10b; Solkin 1982 under cat. 64; Clark & Bowron, p. 255 under cat. 165; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 58, fig. 52