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    300 years
    Return to "London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83" is linked to these Works 146 items
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    Ponte Nomentano

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    Ponte Nomentano
    Ponte Nomentano
    Ponte Nomentano
    Tate, London 2014
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Ponte Nomentano
    Date
    Dated 1754
    Medium
    Graphite, black and white chalk and stump on grey laid paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 287 x 422 mm
    Imperial: 11 5/16 x 16 5/8 in.
    Collection
    Tate, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    T03026
    Wilson Online Reference
    D318
    Description
    This is a close-up view of the bridge seen in the distance of D316 The Via Nomentana, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven. Jonathan Yarker reports that, like the bridge itself, the house on the right still survives.
    Exhibited
    Birmingham 1948-49 (89); London 1949 (88); Rome 1959 (669); London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83 (49); Tercentenary 2014 (68)
    Provenance
    Commissioned by William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801) in Rome in 1753; by descent until lost; rediscovered by Lady Dartmouth, Patshull House, Wolverhampton 1948; 8th Earl of Dartmouth; Christie's 29 January 1954 (22); bt Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; purchased by Tate Gallery, London, 1980
    Signature/inscription
    See 'Mount Inscriptions'
    Verso inscriptions
    Inscribed: 32
    Mount inscriptions
    [1] Signed in black ink on coloured border, lower left corner: R. Wilson f. 1754.
    [2] Inscribed on cartellino in black ink , lower centre: Ponte | Nomentano [the last 'o' changed from an 'a']
    [3] Inscribed in graphite on coloured border, lower right corner: No. 20
    Subject
    The Ponte Nomentano, which combines a Roman arch with a medieval tower, is three miles north east of Rome and carries the Via Nomentana across the River Aniene before it flows into the Tiber.
    Related Drawings
    D316 The Via Nomentana, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Joseph Wright of Derby, A View of the Ponte Nomentano, near Rome, 1774 and later, Derby Museum and Art Gallery (1950-126)
    Critical commentary
    One of a major series of drawings commissioned by William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801) iin 1754, of which 25 are known to survive. The Dartmouth set is the most important group of the artist's finished compositions on paper. Originally numbering 68, the drawings were highly prized by the earl and much admired by connoisseurs and artists of the day including William Lock of Norbury, and the artists John Hoppner and Joseph Farington. Hoppner said of them, 'they were such as the Greeks would have made & put all others at a distance' and Farington was almost certainly referring to them when he characterised Wilson's drawings as having 'all the qualities of his pictures except the colour.' Drawings from the set are distinguished by a white mount with lilac wash border, on which the artist attached a small white label, bearing the title of the work. As Robin Simon has noted, in making such records of specific locations around Rome, Wilson swiftly developed one of his most important skills - the creation of a coherent and evocative composition in front of an accurately recorded scene. His ability to shape an open view through balance and variation, without benefit of framing devices such as trees, would later find a logical application in such highly original works as D360 A View of Hounslow Heath, London, Private Collection, UK, c/o Lowell Libson Ltd.
    Bibliography
    Farington Diary, vol. 7, p. 2775 (1 June 1806); Farington Biographical Note p. 12; Ford 1948, p. 345, no. 20; Ford 1951, p. 61, no. 62; The Tate Gallery Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions 1978-90 , London, 1981, pp. 48-50; Solkin 1982, pp. 171-172; Clark & Bowron 1985, p. 267 under cat. 195; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 255
    Location featured in work
    The Ponte Nomentana, Rome
    More Information
    This is one of 20 views of the environs of Rome referred to by Thomas Jenkins a letter dated 1 June 1754. Of these only no. 1 is missing from the serial numbers recorded in the lower right corner of each. All the Dartmouth drawings have numbers in graphite on the back, ranging (with gaps) from 23 to 61, thus supporting the total of 68 given by Farington. The mounts of all the surviving Dartmouth drawings, with their lilac wash borders, were made by Wilson or under his direction, perhaps by Jenkins.
    Condition/Conservation
    Laid down on fawn paper with original lilac border
    Updated by Compiler
    2019-10-09 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • The Via Nomentana, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • Birmingham City Art Gallery, 17 November 1948 - 9 January 1949
    • London, Tate Gallery, 22 January - 14 March 1949
    • Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1959
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014

    Biographies

    • William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Anthony M. Clark and Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text
    • Brinsley Ford, 'The Dartmouth Collection of Drawings by Richard Wilson'
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