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    Return to "Lyttelton, George" is linked to these Works 3 items
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    The Hermitage, Villa Madama

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    The Hermitage, Villa Madama
    The Hermitage, Villa Madama
    The Hermitage, Villa Madama
    Courtesy of Viscount Cobham
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The Hermitage, Villa Madama
    Date
    c.1756-58 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 62 x 82.2 cm
    Imperial: 24 3/8 x 32 3/8 in.
    Collection
    Hagley Hall, Worcestershire. To license image, click here.
    Wilson Online Reference
    P91A
    Description
    In a shady glade, a lane runs across the foreground and on the left a man and a woman greet a friar. A rustic building is at the centre, overhung by trees, while to the right on a gentle slope, a line of trees and two small figures are silhouetted against the sunset sky.
    Exhibited
    Birmingham City Art Gallery 1926; Birmingham 1934, Art Treasures of the Midlands, (305 - Garden of the Villa Madama, Rome); Birmingham 1948-49 (12); London 1949 (11); Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand, Old Master Paintings from the Private and Public Collections of New Zealand, 1959 (16)
    Provenance
    Probably the landscape by Wilson listed among the pictures in the Supping Parlour at Hagley Hall by The English Connoisseur in 1766 (see Bibliography); thence by descent
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    The style indicates a period just post Wilson's travels in Italy, as indicated by the variation in foliage colours. The lovers in the foreground are French rococo in style. The ground appears to be grey and there is evidence of a reserve left below the paint of the tree at the upper left. The sky is finely painted.
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Right stretcher bar: 4 pencil figure '3's and one inscribed '4' encircled in red chalk
    [2] Lower stretcher bar, pencil: 18 (inverted)
    Labels
    [1] Verso upper stretcher bar left: [...] -B1-K | City of Birmingham Art Gallery | Richard Wilson | Villa Madama | Lent by Lord Cobham | 12
    [2] Verso upper stretcher bar left centre: CITY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY | BIRMINGHAM | Jubilee Commemorative Exhibition | 1934 | THE PROPERTY OF Viscount Cobham
    [3] Verso upper stretcher bar right centre: BIRMINGHAM ART GALLERY | LENT BY VISCOUNT COBHAM | HAGLEY HALL | TITLE Landscape, Villa Madama, Rome | [...] Wilson R.A. | ...02 [...] 1926
    [4] Verso upper stretcher bar right: P8671-B1-K | City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery | Viscount Cobham
    Subject
    Known as The Hermitage by 1814. Described in the 1900 Catalogue of the Pictures at Hagley Hall (102) as 'representing that part of the Villa Madama, near Rome, where the 'Pastor Fido' of Guarini was first acted.' The Villa Madama was designed by Raphael for Cardinal Giuliano dei Medici (later Pope Clement VII) and took its name from having been occupied by Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Charles V, and Duchess of Parma, in the late 16th century. Il Pastor Fido by G.B. Guarini (1537-1612) is a pastoral drama, from which the libretto of Handel's eponymous opera was derived (1712, revived 1734).
    Related Prints
    E14 William Byrne after Wilson A View in the Villa Madama, near Rome, called Il Teatro, 1765, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven (B1984.21.428) and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    Stylistically the painting is datable c.1756-58, making it likely in the light of its documented early Hagley connection to have been painted for either Sir George Lyttelton or Admiral Thomas Smith. W.G. Constable believed it to be almost certainly the landscape by Wilson in the list of pictures at Hagley given in the The English Connoisseur in 1766. The composition was clearly one of Wilson's 'good breeders' as at least five authentic versions are known.
    Bibliography
    The English Connoisseur, vol. 1, (1766), p. 73; Catalogue of the Pictures at Hagley Hall, 1900, no. 102; WGC, pp. 41, 202-203, pl. 82a
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/90
    More Information
    Sir George Lyttelton owned what is probably this painting by 1766. The idea of a hermitage seems to have had a special appeal for him as he had such a building constructed in his own park at Hagley.
    Condition/Conservation
    Carved period pine frame: 76 x 96.5 x 6 cm. Relined. Much raised cracking. Kate Lowry has noted: Glue-lined and on a nineteenth-century stretcher with square mortice joints and provision for keying out. Grey ground visible where exposed around green foliage centre top. No obvious reserve around ginger coloured leaves against sky. Foreground figures quite rococo in style, whilst the trees against sky are more Claudian. Raised cracks in sky and upper foliage. Old drying cracks in central dark areas.
    Updated by Compiler
    2020-10-09 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson, A View in the Villa Madama, near Rome, called II Teatro, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson, A view in the Villa Madama, near Rome, called Il Teatro: Pastor Fido & other dramas having been performed there, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
    • William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson, A view in the Villa Madama, near Rome, called Il Teatro: Pastor Fido & other Dramas having been perform'd there, The British Museum
    • William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson, A View in the Villa Madama near Rome called Il Teatro, Royal Academy of Arts
    • William Byrne (1743-1805) after Wilson, View in the Villa Madama, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Hermitage, Villa Madama, Petworth House, National Trust
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Hermitage, Villa Madama, Private Collection, England
    • Wilsonand Studio, The Hermitage, Villa Madama, Private Collection, Wales
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Hermitage, Villa Madama, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Garden of the Villa Madama, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Exhibitions

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

    Biographies

    • Admiral Thomas Smith (1707-1762)
    • Sir George (Lord) Lyttelton (1709-1773)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
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