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    Return to "Norwich 1958" is linked to these Works 6 items
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    The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground

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    The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground
    The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground
    The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground
    Private Collection, England / Photograph by Matthew Hollow
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The Villa Madama, Rome, with a Man seated in the Foreground
    Date
    c.1753 (undated)
    Medium
    Black chalk over graphite with white highlights on grey paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 195 x 257 mm
    Imperial: 7 5/8 x 10 1/8 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, England
    Accession Number
    RF75
    Wilson Online Reference
    D225
    Description
    An artist, presumably intended as Wilson himself, sits with his back to us on Monte Mario, looking towards the Villa Madama and beyond towards Rome, above what is now the Stadio Olimpico.
    Exhibited
    London 1925 (73 - Richard Wilson sketching); Manchester 1925 (46 - Richard Wilson sketching Raphael's Villa); Exeter 1946 (12); Norwich 1958 (62 - The Villa Madama); Rome 1959 (675); Beaumont 1969 (17); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (37); Conwy 2009 (5); Gainsborough House 2014 (unnumbered); Tercentenary 2014 (59)
    Provenance
    William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821;Marianne (Lady) Ford; thence by descent
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    The white highlighting is used skilfully to catch the sunlight on the near corner of the building
    Subject
    The Villa Madama, on Monte Mario to the north of the Vatican, was originally designed about 1518 by Raphael for Pope Clement VII in emulation of the villas of ancient Rome described by Pliny the Younger. After the artist's death in 1520 the building was completed by his pupils.
    Related Paintings
    P56 Rome from the Villa Madama, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection and other versions
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Joseph Farington, Sketchbook (1763), Victoria & Albert Museum, P.72-1921, includes a close copy of the present drawing but without the figure.
    Critical commentary
    Almost certainly a preparatory study for P56 Rome from the Villa Madama, painted for the Earl of Dartmouth in 1753. The figure engaged in drawing is likely to refer to Wilson himself and his known practice of sketching en plein air. This is supported by J.T. Smith's statement of 1828 about Richard Ford's collection of Wilsons: 'The same gentleman has also many of Wilson's finest drawings from nature, which he principally made when studying at Rome; one of which is particularly interesting, since it contains Wilson's own figure, seated on the ground in his bag-wig, making a drawing of Raffaelle's villa.' (see Bibliography below).
    Bibliography
    Smith 1828, vol.1, p. 138; Ford 1951, pp. 56-57, pl. 38; WGC, p. 219, pl. 108a; Solkin, 1982, pp. 163-64, 184-85; Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 71, RF 75; Lord 2009, p. 15, repr; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 248
    Condition/Conservation
    Slight spotting overall, especially noticeable in the large void area of the sky.

    Work of Art

    Paintings

    • Rome from the Villa Madama, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
    • Rome from the Villa Madama, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
    • Rome from the Villa Madama, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
    • Rome from the Villa Madama, Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, Leeds & London

    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, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), 26 June - 30 September 1925
    • Manchester City Art Gallery, 22 October - 5 December 1925
    • Conwy, Royal Cambrian Academy, 24 October - 23 December 2009
    • Exeter, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 7 March - 5 April 1946
    • Norwich, Castle Museum, 23 May - 20 July 1958
    • Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1959
    • Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, 11 January - 31 May 2014
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014
    • Travelling Exhibition, 20 February - 30 November 1969

    Biographies

    • William Lock 'of Norbury' (1732-1810)
    • Sir Brinsley Ford (1908-1999)
    • Marianne Booth, Lady Ford (1767-1849)
    • Sir Richard Ford (1758-1806)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • John Thomas Smith, Nollekens and his Times
    • Peter Lord, Richard Wilson. Life & Legacy
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Brinsley Ford and other authors, The Ford Collection
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