Recto:
Wilson was designed for a portrait painter his Parents | putting him under [blank] but his Genius great & | original could not bear those fetters & submit to the copying of faces, struck out into Landscape painting, his | first studies were in England under [blank] & painted | Landscapes well before he left it & went to Italy. he there | received Instruction from [blank]. he could not confine | himself to study of Principles - His ardent desire of attaining | the Art and dispelling the clouds that still surrounded him made | his [deleted: indefatigable he] continually study of Nature & observed in | lights & shadows, trying to imitate their striking & brilliant | Effects, so happily shewn in his Landscapes. He followed no | model unless it might be said Claude Lorraine - His art | seemed as ^of\ his own creation [deleted: indebted only to Nature]. His | Designs and Colouring grand and brilliant, ^never stooping to low images or vulgar subjects\. His Clair Obscure ad- | mirable. His Aerial Perspective inimitable. ^His landscapes faithful Scenes from Nature.\ His figures | Easy and expressive - His mythological subjects classically | introduced, wherein He may have followed the Example | of Claude - [deleted: Many of] the works of this charming artist ^stand unrivalled. Many of them\ are in the Cabinets of Princes & Noblemen in England | & other countries & have been Engraved by the first [deleted: Engravers] artists
Wilson - over
Verso:
Wilson was an excellent Classical Scholar, his | father a clergyman being indefatigable in giving | him a good Education under his own Inspection | he being himself a man of learning - I have | often heard Will Parsons the comedian observe (who | was intimately acquainted with Rd Wilson the | Painter) that He never knew but two men who | cou'd quote Passages from Horace extempore, on | any subject mentioned ... & they were Richard | Wilson the Painter & Sam Foote the comedian
BB./
