The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)

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Private Collection, England / Photograph by John Hammond

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Artist

Ascribed to Wilson

Title

The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)

Date

Undated

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Metric: 43 x 34.4 cm
Imperial: 16 15/16 x 13 9/16 in.

Collection

Private Collection, England

Accession Number

BB19

Wilson Online Reference

NWP138F

Description

A rural scene depicting Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli in Italy. Viewed from the left bank of a river, ruined arches and a small stone building with a pitched roof can be seen in the foreground. A figure stands upon the arches beside the dwelling, leaning over wooden railings from which washing is hanging. Below two figures rest beside a track running down the bank towards the river. The view from riverbank extends across a wooded landscape towards the hills in distance.

Exhibited

London, Burlington House, 1882; London, Grosvenor Gallery 1885; Brighton 1920 (2 or 34 - Strada Nomentana); London 1925 (23 - On the Strada Nomentana); Manchester 1925 (21 - On the Strada Nomentana)

Provenance

Jeremiah Meyer, R.A.; his sale, Mr Greenwood, Leicester Square, 4 March 1790 (25 - a ditto [= A Landscape with Ruins], £6.16.6.); Benjamin Booth; thence by descent; Captain R. Ford sale, Christie's, 14 June 1929 (24), bt Spink (520 guineas, including a drawing of the subject); Ashurst sale (Burns collection), Christie's 12 June 1931, bt Greg; Sir Brinsley Ford

Signature/inscription

Unsigned; no inscription

Techniques and materials

The figures are glutinous and the background unarticulated

Collectors' marks

[1] Centre of upper horizontal stretcher bar: A red armorial seal
[2] Centre of lower horizontal stretcher bar: A red seal

Labels

[1] Upper right of horizontal stretcher bar. black plastic: 884
[2] Upper right corner of canvas, brown label with black early 19th century manuscript: 'a cottage built on two ruined Roman red arches above which white linen is being hung to dry: in the middle distance is a church tower, and a range of mountains beyond. | Richd Wilson'
[3] Lower half of canvas verso, brown label with black early 19th century manuscript, possibly by the same hand as [2]: 'This picture of Richard Wilson taken on the Strada Nomentana [sic] is left by me to Mary Ford for her life and then to F C Ford absolutely | March 23 1857 Richard Ford'

Related Drawings

D170 The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
D170A Hadrian's Villa, Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery

Related Prints

E42 Michael 'Angelo' Rooker after Wilson In the Villa Adriana Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven and other impressions
E80 Celia Lucy Brightwell after Wilson Hadrian's Villa, The British Museum and other impressions
E83 James Carter after Wilson, Hadrian's Villa The British Museum and other impressions

Versions

See 'Links' tab

Related Paintings

There are numerous variants of this composition, often paired with Maecenas's Villa

Critical commentary

The unsubtle facture makes it less than certain that the painting is by Wilson himself. It is close in composition to the drawing at Swansea but also to the etching by Michael 'Angelo' Rooker of 1776 (see 'Related Drawings' and 'Related Prints').

Bibliography

Booth Notes Doc. 8; Booth Notes, Doc. 9 (13); WGC, pp. 47, 200, pl. 80b (version 1); Walpole Society 1998-I, p. 16, BB19

More Information

Benjamin Booth noted in his MS List that he also owned Wilson's original drawing

Updated by Compiler

2020-08-18 00:00:00

The West Belvedere at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli (Hadrian's Villa)

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