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    300 years
    Return to "Leicester" is linked to these Works 2 items
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    Tabley House, Cheshire

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    Tabley House, Cheshire
    Tabley House, Cheshire
    Tabley House, Cheshire
    Private Collection, c/o Robert Holden Ltd.
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Tabley House, Cheshire
    Date
    c.1764-66 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 100.3 x 125.7 cm
    Imperial: 39 1/2 x 49 1/2 in.
    Collection
    Tabley House, Cheshire. To license images click here.
    Wilson Online Reference
    P126
    Description
    Tabley House is shown in the distance of a broad panorama. Across the foreground stretches a lake, calm in the declining light, with an indolent young couple on the near bank. The man is angling and the girl is suckling a baby. To the left of them, the water is infused with light reflected from the break in the clouds above.
    Exhibited
    RA 1780 (152); London 1934 (227); Amsterdam 1936 (180); Paris 1938 (152); Birmingham 1948-49 (1); London 1949 (1); London 1951-52 (81); Manchester 1957 (192); London 1973-74 (40); Munich 1979-80 (63); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (124); Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten 2007-8, British Vision: Observation and Imagination in British Art 1750-1950 (113); Tercentenary 2014 (139)
    Provenance
    Commissioned by Sir Peter Leicester (1732-1770) - Wilson's bill for £33 paid at his death; his son, Sir John Fleming Leicester, Baronet, created Lord de Tabley, 1826; sold Christie's 7 July 1827 (42), bt Peacock (193 guineas); Sir James Linton; Williamson; Agnews; bt Thomas Ashton, 1890; 1934, Lord Ashton of Hyde, Vinehall; thence by descent
    Labels
    Stretcher:
    [1] Crossing of vertical and horizontal members, printed and ms.: HAMISH DEWAR | ASHTON 6361 F [in circle]
    Frame:
    [1] Upper right vertical member: The British Council
    [2] Lower horizontal member, left: Royal Academy 1951-52 [3] Lower horizontal member, centre, old typescript label: 'This picture of Tabley House, Cheshire, by Richard Wiilson, R.A. | is mentioned in a catalogue of pictures owned by Sir John Leicester| Bart. 1825. He was the owner of Tabley House.'
    Subject
    Sir Peter Leicester remodelled Tabley House following the designs of John Carr of York. From 1762-69, it was reconstructed and the grounds 'improved' in the style of Capability Brown.
    Related Prints
    E71/2 John Young after Wilson, View of Tabley House in Cheshire, 1821, The British Museum
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Anthony Devis (1729-1816): Tabley House from the Park, Tabley House Collection Trust (231.2d)
    Critical commentary
    David Solkin has commented that this painting is close in design and handling to P131 On Hounslow Heath, Tate, London. Both works owe much to the panoramic vistas of 17th century Dutch art. Nevertheless Wilson's approach was daringly original in comparison with the prevailing conventions of estate portraiture. The subordination of the house, then under construction, to its surrounding landscape has often been commented upon as an example of his innovations. When exhibited at the R.A. in 1780, it was described by a reviewer styling himself 'An Artist' as 'an old picture and painted in his prime'.
    Bibliography
    'An Artist', Candid Review of the Exhibition (being the twelfth) of the Royal Academy, MDCLXXX, London, 1780, p. 24; Booth Notes Doc. 5, p. 2; W. Carey, A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings by British Artists in the Possession of Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart., 1819, pp. 134-35, no. 59; J. Young, A Catalogue of Pictures by British Artists in the Possession of Sir John Fleming Leicester, Bart, with etchings from the whole collection, 1821, p. 15, no. 32; Wright 1824, p. 271; C. Hussey, 'Tabley House Cheshire - I & II' Country Life, vol. 54, July 21, 1923, pp. 84-90 & July 28, 1923, pp. 114-120; Whitley 1700-1799, vol. 1, p. 383; Whitley 1800-1820, p. 296; Whitley 1821-1837, p. 133; Commemorative Catalogue 1934 (108, pl. XLI); Bury 1947, pl. 36; WGC, pp. 74, 95, 186-87, pl. 56a; D. Hall, 'The Tabley House Papers', Walpole Society, vol. 38, 1962, p. 122, no. 113; Herrmann 1973, p. 58, pl. 53; Parris 1973, pp. 32 & 34; J. Harris, The Artist and the Country House, London 1979, p. 274, pl. 296; Solkin 1982, p. 231; Courtauld List 1989, no. 166; N. Everett, The Tory View of Landscape, New Haven & London 1994, p. 55; R. Strong, The Artist and the Garden, 2000, pp. 254-55, fig. 315; R. Hoozee ed., British Vision, 2007, pp. 194-95; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 313.
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/68
    More Information
    In 1821 Young recorded P126 as hanging in the 'Anti Room' of Sir John Fleming Leicester's London house.
    Updated by Compiler
    2019-02-13 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • John Young after Wilson, View of Tabley House in Cheshire, The British Museum

    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
    • London, Tate Gallery, 20 November 1973 - 3 February 1974
    • Munich, Haus der Kunst, 21 November 1979 - 27 January 1980
    • London, Royal Academy, 6 January - 17 March 1934
    • London, Wembley Park, 23 April 1924 - 31 October 1925
    • Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 4 July - 4 October 1936
    • London, Royal Academy, 1951-52
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014
    • Manchester City Art Gallery, 30 October - 31 December 1957
    • Paris, Palais du Louvre, 1938

    Biographies

    • Sir Peter Leicester (1732-1770)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Luke Herrmann, British Landscape Painting of the Eighteenth Century
    • Leslie Parris, Landscape in Britain, 1750-1850
    • William Thomas Whitley, Art in England 1800-1820
    • William Thomas Whitley, Art in England 1821-1837
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 5: List of Wilson's Works with Owners
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