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    300 years
    Return to "Kenwood 1980" is linked to these Works 4 items
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    A Weir on the River Po near Ferrara

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    A Weir on the River Po near Ferrara
    A Weir on the River Po near Ferrara
    A Weir on the River Po near Ferrara
    Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    A Weir on the River Po near Ferrara
    Date
    Dated 1776 ['76] on back of canvas
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 23 cm diameter
    Imperial: 9 1/8 in. diameter
    Collection
    Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    WA1855.202
    Wilson Online Reference
    P197
    Exhibited
    Birmingham 1948 (46); London 1949 (45); Kenwood 1980(73)
    Provenance
    Chambers Hall Gift, 1855
    Signature/inscription
    Inscribed on back of canvas : 'Rd Willson 1776 ['76] | River Po | near Ferrara'
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Richard Willson .776 | River Po near Ferrara.
    The inscription is at present concealed but photographic evidence of it exists and according to W.G. Constable, the first figure is illegible and the second doubtful. He also believed the two lines of the inscription to be possibly by different hands, adding that in neither case does the writing look like Wilson's. Nor does there seem to be an example of his spelling his name with two l's.
    Subject
    W.G. Constable saw the locality of the view as uncertain since if the river is the Po, the surrounding country is quite unlike that near Ferrara or along the greater part of the Po Valley. There are hills nearer the source of the river but no evidence that Wilson ever went to Turin or the adjoining region. Other dubious identifications have been the Falls of Terni or Tivoli and the region near Velletri.
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    At least six painted versions are known, plus two drawings. They may be based on the composition of two paintings by Gaspard Dughet - one a roundel in the collection of the Duke of Grafton at Euston Hall but in the collection of Dr Bragge when it was engraved in reverse by Knapton in 1741. Wilson's use of a small roundel shape is unique in his paintings and as Anne French has noted, suggests that he had a particular prototype in mind. The title of all the versions derives from the inscription on the back of this one.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    A200
    Bibliography
    Grant 1926-47, vol. 1, p. 61; Bury 1947, p. 68; WGC, pp. 75, 96, 211, pl. 98a; A. French, Gaspar Dughet called Gaspar Poussin 1615-75, exh. cat., Kenwood, London, 1980, pp. 88-89 (73); The Ashmolean Museum: Complete Illustrated Catalogue of Paintings, 2004, p. 244
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/110
    Condition/Conservation
    Relined, cleaned and varnished by Ayerst Hooker Buttery, 1910, when the inscription was hidden. In 1917, reported to be covered with a network of fine cracks, but in perfect and brilliant preservation.

    Work of Art

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall), Magdalen College, Oxford
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Weir on the Po (Figures by a Waterfall) , Collection of Richard L. Feigen & Co
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The Falls of Tivoli (The Weir on the Po), Private Collection, England
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) 'The Weir on the Po' ('Landscape with Waterfall') , Niedersächsischen Landesmuseums, Hannover, Germany

    Exhibitions

    • Birmingham City Art Gallery, 17 November 1948 - 9 January 1949
    • London, Tate Gallery, 22 January - 14 March 1949
    • London, Kenwood House, Iveagh Bequest, 11 July - 28 September 1980

    Biographies

    • Chambers Hall (1786-1855)
    • Horace Buttery (1846-1900)
    • Ayerst Hooker Buttery (1868-1929)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Adrian Bury, Richard Wilson, R.A.: The Grand Classic
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