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    300 years
    Return to "Birmingham 1948-49" is linked to these Works 90 items
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    Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…

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    Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
    Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
    Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury…
    Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wilts. / The Bridgeman Art Library
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio
    Title
    Wilton House looking East with the Palladian Bridge and Salisbury Cathedral
    Date
    c.1758-60 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 100.3 x 146.1 cm
    Imperial: 39 1/4 x 57 11/16 in.
    Collection
    Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    85
    Wilson Online Reference
    P77
    Description
    To the left is the east end of the south front of Wilton, designed by Inigo Jones and completed in 1654. To the right beyond a framing cedar tree is the Palladian Bridge, built in 1736 by Henry, 9th Earl of Pembroke and Roger Morris. In the distance are the loggia, and behind that, the spires of Salisbury Cathedral.
    Exhibited
    BI 1814 (172/176, 194/198 or 196/200, as View at Wilton/View of Wilton House); Birmingham 1948-49 (49); London 1949 (48)
    Provenance
    Painted for Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke; thence by descent
    Signature/inscription
    Signed on the tree at right: RW [monogram, the R reversed]
    Techniques and materials
    The ground is light with pinkish additions in parts, for example at the centre of the distant hill. The cedar tree is very blue - perhaps painted wet on wet. The dark storm clouds upper left are fussy and the strong rays of light descending from the sky in the centre are uncharacteristic of Wilson.
    Related Drawings
    D350/2 Study for Wilton House looking East, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection (1922.1681V)
    Related Paintings
    Four other views of Wilton painted for Henry, 10th Earl of Pembroke (see 'Links' tab)
    Critical commentary
    One of a series of five views of Wilton House that Wilson painted for the 10th Earl of Pembroke, whom he first met in Italy. The entire set is not likely to be later than 1760, when Lord Pembroke left Britain for two years of military service on the Continent. The architecture is Canalettesque but stiff and the painting is likely to be at least partly studio work.
    Bibliography
    Catalogue 1814, p. 21; Waterhouse 1953, p. 177, pl. 144; WGC, pp. 88, 189, pl. 59a; S. Pembroke, A Catalogue of the Paintings and Drawings in the Collection at Wilton House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, 1968, pp. 35-36, cat. 85, pl. 23; Solkin 1978, p. 406, fig. 1; J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London 1979, p. 276, pl. 298c; R. Strong, The Artist and the Garden, 2000, p. 253, fig. 314; F. Russell, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Wilton House, 2021, p. 121, cat. 209; J.M. Robinson, Wilton House, 2021, pp. 163-67.
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/71
    More Information
    The figures on the lawn are playing bowls and the man leaning against the tree at the right is probably keeping the score. Francis Russell has documented the exceptional size of the cedars at Wilton.
    Condition/Conservation
    Unglazed. Relined on two canvases. Cleaned and repaired in 1935. Paint very thin in the house and lake, possibly due to overcleaning in the past.
    Kate Lowry has noted: In a gilt frame with ribbon motif matching that of P79. Recently restored by Simon Foulkes. Stretcher size recorded by him: 39 1/4 x 57 11/16 in.; 99.6 x 146.5 cm. Oil on canvas. Signed 'RW' with reversed 'R' in tree trunk at right of composition. Pale ground with pink underpaint visible beneath foliage and foreground tones. Figures playing bowls are quite lanky. Architecture of building carried out in a laboured Canaletto-like style. Foliage of fir-tree rendered with swishy brush-strokes. (Simon Foulkes says there is an old tear here.) Probably painted by Wilson's pupils.

    Updated by Compiler
    2021-12-21 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Study for Wilton House looking East, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson, Wilton House from the South East, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire
    • Richard Wilson and Studio, Wilton House: Temple Copse and Stables, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire
    • Richard Wilson and Studio, Wilton House from the East , Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire
    • Richard Wilson and Studio, Wilton House, South View from Temple Copse, Collection of the Earl of Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire

    Exhibitions

    • Birmingham City Art Gallery, 17 November 1948 - 9 January 1949
    • London, Tate Gallery, 22 January - 14 March 1949
    • London, British Institution, 1814

    Biographies

    • Sir William Chambers (1722-1796)
    • Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke (1734-1794)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, 'Some New Light on the Drawings of Richard Wilson'
    • Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790
    • Anonymous, Catalogue of Pictures by the late William Hogarth, Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, and J. Zoffani. Exhibited by permission of the proprietors in honour of the memory of those distinguished artists, and for the improvement of British art
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