Skip to Content
Log InRegister
    HomePaintingsDrawingsPrintsBrowse All WorksWilson CollectionsWilson Collections MapTercentenary ExhibitionOther ExhibitionsProject HighlightsThemes and MediaBiographiesBibliographical Resources
    Advanced Search
    Work of ArtBiographiesExhibitionsBibliographical Resources
    Settings
    Pages
    300 years
    Return to "London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83" is linked to these Works 146 items
    of 146

    Pastoral Landscape with a Tower

    This item is active and ready to use
    Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
    Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
    Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
    Collection Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
    title=Credit line
    Larger ImageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Pastoral Landscape with a Tower
    Date
    c.1754-56 (undated)
    Medium
    Black chalk and stump on grey paper, heightened with white
    Dimensions
    Metric: 125 x 127 mm
    Imperial: 4 7/8 x 5 in.
    Collection
    Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. To license images click here.
    Accession Number
    RP-T-1959-162
    Wilson Online Reference
    D242
    Description
    Within a roundel an Italian landscape is shown, with a shepherd and his flock in the foreground and a park to the left with high cypresses and stone pines. To the right there are a house and a tall tower amongst the trees, with a distant mountain beyond.
    Exhibited
    London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-3 (56)
    Provenance
    Nathaniel Hone (1718-1784); [...] P.& D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1959; purchased through the F.G. Waller Fund
    Signature/inscription
    Inscribed verso (see Verso inscriptions)
    Collectors' marks
    [1] Lower centre: Nathaniel Hone the elder (Lugt 2793)
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Centre left, pencil: 59:162
    [2] Centre left: RMUS in oval
    [3] Lower left: Blue cross
    Related Drawings
    D243 Italian Landscape with two Figures in a Park, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
    Critical commentary
    As David Solkin notes, it is hard to be precise in dating drawings like this and D261 Ariccia, Tate, London, which are probably based only vaguely, if indeed at all, on actual Italian scenes. They appear to be finished vignettes, produced for sale and are executed in an abbreviated form of Wilson's usual chalk technique, relying almost exclusively on the use of stump rather than line for the interior modelling of the forms. He seems to have begun working in this manner only towards the end of his stay in Italy. The roundel format suggests William Lock's twelve Small circular Landscapes, Views in the Environs of Rome, taken in the years 1754 and 1756 (sold Sotheby's, 3 May 1821, lot 386). This roundel, however, does not seem to have belonged to Lock.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    26786
    Bibliography
    Solkin 1982, p. 176
    Location featured in work
    Perhaps a distant view of Vesuvius is intended
    More Information
    The roundels are exact and were drawn with compasses. The extreme finesse of technique confirms the dating to the later Italian period.
    Condition/Conservation
    Image diameter: 105 mm (4 1/8 in.) White heightening is used on greyish beige possibly laid paper, on square card (the paper is likely to be laid but it is very difficult to make out any laid lines amid the creases of laying down). Around the edges, the card and paper are very close, with just a narrow border, approx 3 mm wide all round. On the reverse, fading marks look as if the card may have been mounted side by side with D261 Ariccia, Tate, London.

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Classical Landscape with a Distant Mountain, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983

    Biographies

    • Nathaniel Hone the Elder (1718-1784)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy