The Gypsies

The Gypsies
The Gypsies
The Gypsies
The Trustees of the British Museum
title=Credit line
Artist
Thomas Hastings after Wilson
Title
The Gypsies
Date
Published October 1820
Medium
Etching on chine collé
Dimensions
Metric: 144 x 199 mm
Imperial: 5 5/8 x 7 11/16 in.
Accession Number
1854,0708.62
Wilson Online Reference
E72/5
Description
View from a wooded hill across a plain with a river winding towards distant mountains. Two gypsy women are standing under a tree in the left foreground, while a man is seated at the centre and another nearby on the slope.
Provenance
Bought from George Willis, Piazza, Covent Garden, 1854
Signature/inscription
Lettered below the image with the title, 'The Original Painting is in the Possession of T. Hastings.', production details and publication line: 'Painted by R. Wilson. | 1771' ' Etched by T. Hastings. 1820' | Pubd. by T. Hastings as the Act directs October. 1820.'
Related Prints
E50 Samuel Alken after Wilson, The Gypsies, 1783, The British Museum (1877,0811.497) plus other impressions
Related Paintings
P176 Gypsies on a Road near Rome, Private Collection, England 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 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 text, Hastings calls E72/5 'View near Albano, Peasants of Ditto, or Frescati' and describes the differences between his own and the Ford picture.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
PPA234266
Bibliography
Hastings 1825; WGC, p. 200 under pl. 79b; 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
06/12/2017