The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)

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The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)
The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)
The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)
Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond
title=Credit line
Artist
Ascribed to Wilson
Title
The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)
Date
Undated
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 43 x 34.4 cm
Imperial: 16 15/16 x 13 9/16 in.
Collection
Private Collection, England
Accession Number
BB19
Wilson Online Reference
NWP138F
Description
A rural scene depicting Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli in Italy. Viewed from the left bank of a river, ruined arches and a small stone building with a pitched roof can be seen in the foreground. A figure stands upon the arches beside the dwelling, leaning over wooden railings from which washing is hanging. Below two figures rest beside a track running down the bank towards the river. The view from riverbank extends across a wooded landscape towards the hills in distance.
Exhibited
London, Burlington House, 1882; London, Grosvenor Gallery 1885; Brighton 1920 (2 or 34 - Strada Nomentana); London 1925 (23 - On the Strada Nomentana); Manchester 1925 (21 - On the Strada Nomentana)
Provenance
Jeremiah Meyer, R.A.; his sale, Mr Greenwood, Leicester Square, 4 March 1790 (25 - a ditto [= A Landscape with Ruins], £6.16.6.); Benjamin Booth; thence by descent; Captain R. Ford sale, Christie's, 14 June 1929 (24), bt Spink (520 guineas, including a drawing of the subject); Ashurst sale (Burns collection), Christie's 12 June 1931, bt Greg; Sir Brinsley Ford
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Techniques and materials
The figures are glutinous and the background unarticulated
Collectors' marks
[1] Centre of upper horizontal stretcher bar: A red armorial seal
[2] Centre of lower horizontal stretcher bar: A red seal
Labels
[1] Upper right of horizontal stretcher bar. black plastic: 884
[2] Upper right corner of canvas, brown label with black early 19th century manuscript: 'a cottage built on two ruined Roman red arches above which white linen is being hung to dry: in the middle distance is a church tower, and a range of mountains beyond. | Richd Wilson'
[3] Lower half of canvas verso, brown label with black early 19th century manuscript, possibly by the same hand as [2]: 'This picture of Richard Wilson taken on the Strada Nomentana [sic] is left by me to Mary Ford for her life and then to F C Ford absolutely | March 23 1857 Richard Ford'
Related Drawings
D170 The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
D170A Hadrian's Villa, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery
Related Prints
E42 Michael 'Angelo' Rooker after Wilson In the Villa Adriana Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven and other impressions
E80 Celia Lucy Brightwell after Wilson Hadrian's Villa, The British Museum and other impressions
E83 James Carter after Wilson, Hadrian's Villa The British Museum and other impressions
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
There are numerous variants of this composition, often paired with Maecenas's Villa
Critical commentary
The unsubtle facture makes it less than certain that the painting is by Wilson himself. It is close in composition to the drawing at Swansea but also to the etching by Michael 'Angelo' Rooker of 1776 (see 'Related Drawings' and 'Related Prints').
Bibliography
Booth Notes Doc. 8; Booth Notes, Doc. 9 (13); WGC, pp. 47, 200, pl. 80b (version 1); Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 16, BB19
More Information
Benjamin Booth noted in his MS List that he also owned Wilson's original drawing
Updated by Compiler
2020-08-18 00:00:00