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 1916" is linked to these Works 7 items
    of 7

    Landscape Composition - An Italian Garden

    This item is active and ready to use
    Landscape Composition - An Italian Garden
    Landscape Composition - An Italian Garden
    Landscape Composition - An Italian Garden
    National Galleries of Scotland / Photography by Antonia Reeve
    title=Credit line
    Larger imageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Landscape Composition - An Italian Garden
    Date
    1754
    Medium
    Pen and brown ink, black chalk and stump on white paper, inlaid
    Dimensions
    Metric: 162 x 137 mm
    Imperial: 6 3/8 x 5 3/8 in.
    Collection
    National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. To license images click here.
    Accession Number
    D 4665
    Wilson Online Reference
    D278
    Description
    Three figures are grouped next to a monumental urn on a plinth in the foreground. One, holding a spear or staff, is nude, the others clothed in classical attire. Other figures, also dressed all'antica are seen in the middle distance. The scene is framed by several overhanging trees on the left and a scattering of poplars to the right.
    Exhibited
    London 1916 (52 - Landscape Composition); London 1925 (87); Manchester 1925 (47 - Landscape Composition)
    Provenance
    Herbert Horne; Sir Edward Marsh; presented through the National Art-Collections Fund, 1953
    Signature/inscription
    Signed and dated lower left in ink beneath the urn: R.W. 1754
    Techniques and materials
    The mixture of ink and stump is a rather rare medium for Wilson (see Ford 1951, p. 26)
    Labels
    [1] The catalogue entry for the London 1916 Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition is adhered to the modern mount
    Related Drawings
    D317 The Temple of Minerva Medica, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    Related Paintings
    P69 Ego fui in Arcadia, Private Collection, England
    Critical commentary
    The figures in the foreground seem intended as ancient Romans. Brinsley Ford observed that the marble urn on the left was used again to provide a compositional accent in another drawing of 1754, D317 The Temple of Minerva Medica, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven. The underlying theme of ancient pastoral melancholy was treated again by the artist the following year in P69 Ego Fui in Arcadia, Private Collection, England).
    Bibliography
    Binyon 1916, p. 27; Ford 1951, p. 55, pl. 29; Baker 2011, pp. 414-15 & 416 repr.
    More Information
    A very similar urn to that shown on the wall at the left appears in D317

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • The Temple of Minerva Medica, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven

    Paintings

    • Ego fui in Arcadia, Private Collection, England

    Exhibitions

    • London, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), 26 June - 30 September 1925
    • Manchester City Art Gallery, 22 October - 5 December 1925
    • London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1916

    Biographies

    • Sir Edward Howard Marsh (1872-1953)
    • Herbert Horne (1864-1916)

    Documents

    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Christopher Baker, English Drawings and Watercolours 1600-1900, National Gallery of Scotland
    • Laurence Binyon, Exhibition of the Herbert Horne Collection of Drawings
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy