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    300 years
    Return to "Booth Notes Doc. 5" is linked to these Works 34 items
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    The Foundling Hospital, London

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    The Foundling Hospital, London
    The Foundling Hospital, London
    The Foundling Hospital, London
    Coram in the care of the Foundling Museum
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The Foundling Hospital, London
    Date
    Dated on tablet at base of frame: 1746
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 56 x 56 cm diameter
    Imperial: 22 x 22 in. diameter
    Collection
    The Foundling Museum, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    BN 86
    Wilson Online Reference
    P18
    Description
    The view is of the Foundling Hospital, Bloomsbury, as seen from surrounding fields.
    Exhibited
    Manchester 1857 (Modern Masters, 149); London 1925 (16); London, 25 Park Lane, 1938 (29); London Tate Gallery, Manners and Morals, 1988 (170); YCBA and Kensington Palace, London, 2017 Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the modern World (25.04)
    Provenance
    Presented to the Foundling Hospital by the artist in 1746, when he was elected Governor; first recorded there 1751.
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    Pale pink/orange ground. On cleaning by Clare Wilkins in 1998 it was found that there were areas of the sky which were quite thin. Initial drawing visible in one or two places in the architecture.
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Upper quadrant, white chalk: 63 [?]
    [2] Right quadrant white chalk: No 5
    [3] Left quadrant white chalk: Foundling Hospt
    Labels
    Recto: Small printed square label affixed to tablet at base of frame: 75
    Verso: [1] Upper quadrant: Manchester | ART TREASURES | Foundling
    [2] Upper quadrant: Illegible fragment
    [3] Upper quadrant: Illegible fragment
    [4] Right quadrant: The Tate Gallery | Thomas Coram Foundling | Richard Wilson | [illegible] | Manners and Morals: Hogarth | and British Painting 1700-1765 | 13 Oct - 3 Jan 1989
    Subject
    The Foundling Hospital was still under construction in 1746, on a site approximately where Woburn Square is today. Only the West Wing for boys was complete, although Wilson has omitted any evidence of this, presumably in order to present an idealised image.
    Related Paintings
    Pendant P19 St George's Hospital, The Foundling Museum, London
    Critical commentary
    P18 and P19 were two of eight round views of London hospitals and educational institutions displayed in the General Court Room of the Foundling Hospital, now part of the Foundling Museum. All the same size, the others were by Gainsborough (The Charterhouse); Samuel Wale (Christ's Hospital, St Thomas's Hospital, Greenwich Hospital): and Edward Haytley (Bethlem Hospital and Chelsea Hospital). They are framed by gilt oak leaves and acorns, embellished by painted foliage and garlands.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    75; FM 65
    Bibliography
    Booth Notes Doc. 5, p. 3; Brownlow 1847, pp. 57-59; Whitley 1700-1799, vol. 1, p. 163; R.H. Nichols & F.A. Wray, The History of the Foundling Hospital, 1935, pp. 251, 261-62, repr. opp. p. 271; Waterhouse 1953, p. 174; WGC, p. 180, pl. 43a; B. Nicolson & J.F. Kerslake, The Treasures of the Foundling Hospital, 1972, pp. 81-82. no. 86, pl. 56; E.K. Waterhouse, British 18th Century Painters in Oils and Crayons, Woodbridge 1981; Solkin 1982, pp. 149-50 under no. 8; J. Marschner et al., eds, Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the modern World, 1987, p. 420
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/50
    More Information
    The Court Room of the Foundling Hospital was one of the first public spaces for the display of British art, presenting a major opportunity to impress wealthy patrons. Wilson intended P18 and P19 to be advertisements for his skills as an estate painter and classical artist.
    Condition/Conservation
    Dimensions framed: 66.4 x 66.3 cm including tablet. Canvas primed and stretched. Relined 1973-74. The original carved, gilded and gessoed frame was probably the work of William Hallett (c.1707-1781), paid £11.4s. 'For 8 carved oval frames for pictures' on November 15th 1746 (Ms Book of Furniture, Foundling Museum Archive, LMA Research 007).

    Work of Art

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), St George's Hospital, The Foundling Museum, London (Pendant)

    Exhibitions

    • London, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), 26 June - 30 September 1925
    • Manchester, Exhibition Hall, 5 May - 17 October 1857

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790
    • William Thomas Whitley, Artists and their Friends in England 1700-1799
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 5: List of Wilson's Works with Owners
    • John Brownlow, Memoranda, or, Chronicles of the Foundling Hospital, including Memoirs of Captain Coram
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