View of Windsor Forest

This item is active and ready to use
View of Windsor Forest
View of Windsor Forest
View of Windsor Forest
Anglesey Abbey, National Trust
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
View of Windsor Forest
Date
c.1765 (undated)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 45.1 x 70.5 cm
Imperial: 17 3/4 x 27 3/4 in
Accession Number
AA/P/187
Wilson Online Reference
P132
Description
In this view of Windsor Forest high ground in the foreground can be seen with grazing deer. The ground slopes towards a pond (these are the grounds of Sophia Lodge where there was a round pond). Beyond this is woodland with an extensive distant view.
Exhibited
BI 1858 (148 - lent Wynn Ellis); RA 1778 (352 - A View in Windsor Great Park; Leggatt, London,English Landscape Painters, 1947 (43); Brussels, Palais des Beaux-ArtsEuropalie, Tresors des Chateaux Britanniques, 1973 (70)
Provenance
Probably Wynn Ellis sale, Christie's 6 May 1876 (130 - Windsor Forest), bt Agnew #9965 (£84); 12 May 1876, D. Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, sold there 19 July 1926; with Scott & Fowles New York; E. Aldred, New York; Parke-Bernet New York, May 1946 (128 as from 'Long Island Collector'), bt John Mitchell, London; with Leggatt Brothers, 30, St James's Street, London S.W.1, July 1947; Lord Fairhaven (unknown date of acquisition)
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; No inscription
Subject
Windsor was one of the places that 18th century poets found full of significance. It was celebrated in verse, most notably in Alexander Pope's On Windsor Forest of 1713. Like his imitators, Pope endowed the Windsor landscape with classical features, encouraging comparisons with mythological places like Mount Olympus. Artists took up the poets' vision and in order to convey the same message, often chose to paint Windsor in an Italian pictorial mode. Thus the present scene is represented as a pastoral with grazing deer in the foreground and an expansive view behind, with picturesque features of a pond and clumps of trees.
Previous Cat/Ref Nos
179
Bibliography
Apollo, vol. 46, July 1947, no. 269 repr. on cover; C.G.E. Blunt, Windsor Castle through Three Centuries, Leigh-on-Sea 1949, pp. 36, 70, no. 83, pl. 18; WGC, pp. 93, 189, pl. 61a
Condition/Conservation
Good condition but some wear, especially in the foreground.
Kate Lowry has noted: The foliage and trunks of the trees at left are reserved against the sky and the group of stags in the middle ground in the sunlight are well painted. The immediate foreground and tree at the right appear worn or unfinished.