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    300 years
    Return to "London 1973-74" is linked to these Works 9 items
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    The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens

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    The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens
    The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens
    The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens
    Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens
    Date
    c.1760-62 (undated)
    Medium
    Red, black and white chalk on blue paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 248 x 334 mm
    Imperial: 9 3/4 x 13 1/8 in.
    Collection
    Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    WA1971.53
    Wilson Online Reference
    D357/1
    Description
    A monumental stone arch with broken profile and surmounted by a classical urn, seen slightly obliquely between a bank with undergrowth on the right and poplars on the left
    Exhibited
    London 1973-74 (34); Baltimore 1979-80 (57); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (99)
    Provenance
    The Revd Robert Finch; bequeathed to the Taylor Institution, University of Oxford, 1830; transferred to the Ashmolean, 1971
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Subject
    Kew Gardens lie on the opposite side of the Thames from Syon House. Kew Park was enlarged and embellished by Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales from 1759, when the arch was built 'to make a passage for carriages and cattle, over one of the principal walks of the garden' [and] 'to imitate antiquity'. (W. Chambers, 'A Description of the Palace and Gardens at Kew, the seat of the Princess Dowager of Wales', Royal Magazine, September 1763, p. 154).
    Related Drawings
    D357A A Ruin, Arch at Kew Gardens, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    D357/2 Sketch of an Urn, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
    Related Prints
    E72/17 Thomas Hastings after Wilson,Villa Borghese, The British Museum (1854,0708.74) and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P108 The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens, Private Collection, England
    P108A Kew Gardens, Surrey, Ruined Arch, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery
    Critical commentary
    This is a study for P108 The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens Private Collection, London and P108A (Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery). A related drawing, D357A (Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea) is probably a development of the paintings. The reverse of the present drawing is D357/2 Sketch of an Urn, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. A related etching of 1822 by Thomas Hastings (E72/17) incorrectly located the arch at the Villa Borghese, Rome.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    1909
    Bibliography
    Parris 1973, pp. 30-31; Brown 1982, p. 669-70, no. 1909, pls 556 & XL; Solkin 1982, pp. 211-12
    Updated by Compiler
    2016-12-06 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Sketch of an Urn (verso), Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), A Ruin, Arch at Kew Gardens, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

    Prints

    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Villa Borghese, The British Museum

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The Ruined Arch in Kew Gardens, Private Collection, London
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Kew Gardens, Surrey, Ruined Arch, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • London, Tate Gallery, 20 November 1973 - 3 February 1974
    • Baltimore Museum of Art, USA, 1979-80

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Leslie Parris, Landscape in Britain, 1750-1850
    • David Blayney Brown, Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume IV: The Earlier British Drawings, British Artists and Foreigners working in Britain born before c.1775
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