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    Return to "London 1968" is linked to these Works 18 items
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    Villa Emiliana near Rome

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    Villa Emiliana near Rome
    Villa Emiliana near Rome
    Villa Emiliana near Rome
    Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Villa Emiliana near Rome
    Date
    Early 1760s (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 33 x 40 cm
    Imperial: 13 x 16 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, England
    Accession Number
    BB14
    Wilson Online Reference
    P117
    Description
    An umbrella pine dominates the scene, with part of a villa on the left and a prominent stone sarcophagus in the centre. In the right background are a walled farmstead with cypresses and other trees, towards which some women are walking. A figure is attending to washing on the wooden steps at the side of the villa, other figures are beneath the pine and a man sits on the ground prominently in the right foreground. Beyond are the sea or a lake and distant mountains under a blue sky with fluffy clouds.
    Exhibited
    Brighton 1920 (10 - Villa Emelia); Exeter 1946 (63); Birmingham 1948-49 (27); London 1949 (26); on loan to Kenwood, 1959-60; London 1968 (1); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (91); Conwy 2009 (13); Weston 2011 (13); Gainsborough House 2014 (unnumbered)
    Provenance
    Paul Sandby; Benjamin Booth; Revd R.S. Booth; Lady Ford; Richard Ford; Sir Francis Clare Ford; John G. Ford; Sir Brinsley Ford; thence by descent
    Subject
    The site remains untraced and the scene may be imaginary, contrived from personal experience. The prominent sarcophagus at the centre foreground, its sculptural sophistication contrasting with the rustic setting, provides a note of antiquity and perhaps mortality. Benjamin Booth recorded that the painting had belonged to Paul Sandby.
    Related Drawings
    D223 Ascribed to Wilson, A Roman Table Support, Private Collection, England
    Related Prints
    E72/4 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Villa Emelia, 1820, The British Museum
    E72/4A Thomas Hastings after Wilson, Villa Emelia, 1820, The British Museum
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    The central roundel of the sarcophagus relates to one in the garden of the Villa Medici which Wilson drew.
    Bibliography
    Booth Notes Doc. 5, p. 2; Booth Notes Doc. 8, p. 1; Booth Notes Doc. 9 (8); WGC, pp. 46, 90, 198-99, pl. 76b; Sutton & Clements 1968, p. 39, fig. 44; Solkin 1982, p. 204; Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 15; Williams 2011, p. 24, repr.
    Updated by Compiler
    2021-09-24 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Ascribed to Wilson, A Roman Table Support, Private Collection, England

    Prints

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

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Villa Emiliana near Rome, Private Collection, Scotland

    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
    • Brighton, Fine Art Galleries, 28 February - 2 May 1920
    • Conwy, Royal Cambrian Academy, 24 October - 23 December 2009
    • Weston Park, The Granary Art Gallery, 2 April - 3 July 2011
    • London, Royal Academy, 14 December 1968 - 2 March 1969
    • Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 7 March - 5 April 1946
    • Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, 11 January - 31 May 2014

    Biographies

    • Benjamin Booth (1732-1807)
    • Richard Ford (1796-1858)
    • Paul Sandby (c.1730-1809)
    • Sir Brinsley Ford (1908-1999)
    • The Revd Richard Salwey Booth (1762-1807)
    • Marianne Booth, Lady Ford (1767-1849)
    • Sir Richard Ford (1758-1806)
    • Sir Francis Clare Ford (1828-1899)
    • John G. Ford (-1917)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Denys Sutton & Ann Clements, An Italian Sketchbook by Richard Wilson, RA: Drawings made by the Artist in Rome and its Environs in the Year 1754
    • Brinsley Ford and other authors, The Ford Collection
    • Gareth Williams, Masterpieces from the Ford Collection
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 5: List of Wilson's Works with Owners
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 8: List of Wilson's Paintings and Works by Old Masters and other Artists in Booth's Collection
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 9: List of Wilson's Landscapes with Sizes and former Owners
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