On Hounslow Heath

On Hounslow Heath
On Hounslow Heath
On Hounslow Heath
The Trustees of the British Museum
title=Credit line
Artist
Thomas Hastings after Wilson
Title
On Hounslow Heath
Date
Published 1820
Medium
Etching on chine collé
Dimensions
Metric: 125 x 176 mm
Imperial: 4 7/8 x 6 15/16 in.
Accession Number
1854,0708.58
Wilson Online Reference
E72/1
Description
View on Hounslow Heath, with a woman seated on a rock in the foreground at the left, other figures in the distance and two cattle standing at the right on the bank of the River Crane. There are trees on an island at the centre middle ground with a windmill in the distance at the right.

Provenance
Bought from George Willis, The Piazza, Covent Garden, 1854
Signature/inscription
Lettered below the image:
[1] Lower left: 'R Wilson pinxit | RA'
[2] Lower centre:. 'The Original in the Possession of Lady Ford of Gloucester Place. | ON HOUNSLOW HEATH.'
[3] Lower right: 'T.Hastings fecit | 1820'
Related Drawings
D360 A View of On Hounslow Heath, Private Collection, UK, c/o Lowell Libson Ltd
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Related Paintings
P131 On Hounslow Heath, Tate, London (Lady Ford's painting) and other versions
Critical commentary
From a series of forty etchings after paintings by Richard Wilson and additional title page, bound in a volume in red tooled leather with gold decorative border, lettered on the spine with 'Wilson's | Etchings | by | Hastings'. The title page is lettered in black and red: 'Etchings, | from the Works | of | [facsimile of signature below portrait] Ric. Wilson | with Some Memoirs of his Life, &c. | by Thomas Hastings, Esq. | Collector of His Majesty's Customs. | "Non Ductus Officio Sed Amore Operis." Quintillian. | Published by Hurst, Robinson & Co. Cheapside, London. | Johnson, Typ. Apollo Press, 1825. Brook Street, Holborn'; containing twenty pages of Introductory and Concluding Remarks by the etcher, including descriptions of Richard Wilson's original paintings.
In his Introduction, Thomas Hastings states that 'Paul Sandby was with Richard Wilson at the time the Sketch was made for the subject of Hounslow Heath' (Hastings 1825, p. 9). However it is unclear whether this refers to a drawing, an independent sketch in oil or the lay-in for the finished picture.
Bibliography
Hastings 1825, p. 9. repr.; WGC, p. 178 under pl. 39b; Yule 2015, pp. 60 & 69
More Information
George Willis was an antiquarian book dealer, who occasionally published books and prints. His firm was active from 1832-1856 and sold many prints to the British Museum. In 1856 it merged with Thomas Sotheran to become Willis & Sotheran.
Updated by Compiler
2017-11-30 00:00:00