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 "Waterhouse 1953" is linked to these Works 27 items
    of 27

    The White Monk - II

    This item is active and ready to use
    The White Monk - II
    The White Monk - II
    The White Monk - II
    The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
    title=Credit line
    Larger imageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The White Monk - II
    Date
    c.1760-65 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 76 x 130 cm
    Imperial: 29 15/16 x 51 3/16 in.
    Collection
    The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    BF.1985.16
    Wilson Online Reference
    P145
    Description
    In the foreground two women are resting on the grass while a man brings up an open parasol behind them. A rider descends behind the bank to their left. In the left foreground is a prominent boulder, against which rests a stick, with others scattered nearby. There are two large trees on the right and in the left middle distance, a wooded cliff with a waterfall, surmounted by a square tower with adjoining buildings, and promontory on the edge of which is silhouetted a wayside cross with two figures in prayer before it. A winding river, town and mountains are seen in the right background and birds fly in the sky.
    Exhibited
    RA Old Masters 1880 (134 - Landscape and Figures - lent by Sir Reginald P. Beauchamp); London, Thos. Agnew & Son Ltd, 1982, Master Paintings, 1470-1820, and a Group of Watercolours by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. (1); Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 4 October 1992 - 1 January 1993, Masterpieces of Baroque Painting from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation (unnumbered); Odessa, Texas, Ellen Noël Art Museum, 13 November 2010 - 10 January 2011, British Paintings 1550-1800 from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation
    Provenance
    By 1815 at Langley Park, Chedgrave, Norfolk, having been acquired by Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 1st Bart (1722-1773) or his son, Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor, 2nd Bart (1756-1827) and his wife, Lady Beauchamp-Proctor (1759-1847); sold by his Trustees, Christie's 31 May 1946 (67 - An Italian Landscape: a view looking across a valley towards hills with two Monks before a Crucifix on high ground on the left, and three figures and horsemen near a tall tree in foreground) bt Thomas Agnew & Son, Ltd, 43, Old Bond Street, London W.1.; sold as The Alban Hills to Ivan Stedeford of Tube Investments, 30 October 1947; bt Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, Texas, 1985
    Subject
    The subject and thence the meaning remain open to multiple interpretations. David Solkin memorably explained its attraction as a moral landscape by an emblematic interpretation of the Platonic philosophical concept of concordia discors, or the harmonious union of opposing elements, where 'the chaotic multiplicity of nature has yielded to the ordering hand of art.' (Solkin 1982, p. 66). He saw the inclusion of monks on the promontory as reassurance of a world anchored in divinely ordained harmony and reinforcing the moral certitude and authority of the patrician class who patronised the artist.
    Related Prints
    E17 James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum and other impressions
    E72/22 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, The White Monk, 1822, The British Museum (1854,0708.79)
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P144 The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    P144A Richard Wilson and Studio, The White Monk - I, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    NWP144E Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    P144F The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    P146 The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    P146A The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    P146B The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
    P147 Studio of Wilson, The White Monk - IV, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    P147A Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - IV (Italian Landscape, with white Monk), Museums Sheffield
    Related Works by Other Artists
    G. Dughet, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1653-57, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
    Critical commentary
    As noted by Martin Postle (Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 281) Wilson in this composition establishes a characteristic contrast between the constrictions of organised religion and the dolce far niente symbolised by the relaxed figures in the foreground. Postle also posited a more exact setting than previously acknowledged, e.g. by W.G. Constable, who recorded that it had sometimes been identified as Tivoli or a lower part of the Aniene gorge. He proposed the upper Aniene valley, looking east towards the Prenestini mountains and the rocky outcrops of Mentorella and Guadagnolo. This is an area associated historically with a chain of Benedictine monasteries, thus providing context for the presence of religious observants on the promontory. The White Monk was the most frequently repeated of all Wilson's compositions, a classic 'good breeder' as the artist described them (Wright 1824, p. 33). In this second of three main variants of the composition, two women are shown seated on the ground as a man brings up a parasol for them. There is no sapling behind and to the left of the trees at the right. A wayside cross is silhouetted at the extremity of the cliffs. This version is one of only three known of the second stage of the composition. It is closely linked to a studio painting without the figures by the parasol, recently attributed to William Hodges by Jonathan Yarker (P147). The popular title, The White Monk, was applied first to a print made from a different version of the composition, then belonging to Lady Ford and published in Hastings 1825 (E72/22).
    Bibliography
    Hastings 1825, p. 16; Ford 1951, p. 33; WGC, pp. 89, 227-30, pl. 122b; E.K. Waterhouse 1953, p. 176; Solkin 1978, p. 237; Solkin 1982, pp. 66-70, 214-15, two other versions illustrated; Sutton 1983, p. 43; Martin Butlin, Aspects of British Painting 1550-1800 from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 1988, Houston, Texas, pp. 100-104, repr. p. 103; G. Shackelford et al., Masterpieces of Baroque Painting from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 1992, pp. 37-38, 112, pl. 24; M. Postle, 'Meditations on The White Monk' in J. Clifton & M. Kervandjian eds., A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 2016, pp. 100-113
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/138
    More Information
    The large number of known versions of The White Monk confirm it as one of Wilson's most popular pictures - well over 30 survive, including those made by studio assistants and copyists. All seem to have been executed in Britain after the painter's return from Italy in 1757 and most of them after 1765, when an engraving was published by James Roberts (E17). Nevertheless the composition does not seem to have been exhibited. Three main variant compositions were defined by W.G. Constable and the present compiler has retained his system, entitling them The White Monk - I, etc.
    Condition/Conservation
    Generally good. Some minor losses along the left-hand edge and in the sky.
    Updated by Compiler
    2020-12-08 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum
    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, The White Monk, 1822, The British Museum (1854,0708.79)

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - II, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio, The White Monk - I, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
    • Studio of Wilson, The White Monk - IV, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - IV (Italian Landscape, with white Monk), Museums Sheffield

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Denys Sutton, 'A Meditative Love of Nature': The Richard Wilson Exhibition
    • David Solkin, 'Some New Light on the Drawings of Richard Wilson'
    • Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790
    • Thomas Hastings, Etchings from the Works of Ric. Wilson, with some Memoirs of his Life &c.
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy