Villa Negroni

Villa Negroni
Villa Negroni
Villa Negroni
Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Villa Negroni
Date
c.1753-54 (undated)
Medium
Black chalk on grey paper, heightened with white
Dimensions
Metric: 191 x 184 mm
Imperial: 7 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Collection
Private Collection, England
Accession Number
RF76
Wilson Online Reference
D230
Description
In the right foreground a group of figures is gathered beside a rustic hut. A path leads past them towards a clearing and a distant villa.
Exhibited
Exeter 1946 (14)
Provenance
William Lock 'of Norbury'; his sale, Sotheby's, London, 3-8 May 1821 (part of 377); Marianne Ford ; thence by descent
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Verso inscriptions
[1] Inscribed in ink in an old hand (not Wilson's): Villa Negroni
Subject
In the late 16th century Pope Sixtus V (1521-1590), while still a cardinal, bought a large estate and villa in the northern part of Rome. In 1696 it was sold to Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Negroni and became known as Villa Negroni. It was demolished in the 19th century.
Related Drawings
D149 A Wayside Hut,The British Museum
D404 Villa Negroni, Rome, Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd, London
Related Works by Other Artists
[1] Richard Cooper Junior (1740-1822): Garden of the Villa Negroni at Rome, brown ink, wash and white chalk on paper, National Galleries of Scotland
[2] Thomas Jones: An Excavation of an Antique Building in a Cava in the Villa Negroni, Rome, oil and chalk on paper, ?1777, later dated 1779, Tate, London (T03544)
[3] John Robert Cozens: In the Gardens of the Villa Negroni at Rome, watercolour, 1783, Private Collection
[4] Joseph Mallord William Turner: Villa Negroni, graphite and wash on paper, c.1794-97,
Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester (D1963.2)
Critical commentary
A version is in the British Museum (D149) and a drawing from a different viewpoint has recently emerged (D404). A drawing of the villa was sold at the Esdaile sale, Christie's 20 March 1838 (636).
Bibliography
Ford 1951, pp. 26, 43, 55, pl. 27; Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 71, RF 76
More Information
The villa's famous gardens originally contained Bernini's great marble sculpture Neptune and Triton, now in the Victoria & Albert Museum.