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    300 years
    "Wilson and Europe 2014 " is linked to these Works
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    The White Monk - I

    The White Monk - I
    The White Monk - I
    The White Monk - I
    National Museum Wales, Cardiff
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio
    Title
    The White Monk - I
    Date
    Early 1760s [?]
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 44.4 x 59.7 cm
    Imperial: 17 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.
    Collection
    National Museum Wales, Cardiff. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    NMW A 5202
    Wilson Online Reference
    P144A
    Description
    In the foreground two lovers are seated on the grass under a parasol. On the left is a prominent boulder, against which rests a stick. There are two large trees and some saplings on the right, and in the left middle distance, a wooded cliff and promontory, on the edge of which is silhouetted a wayside cross with religious figures before it. Beyond and opposite lies a town on the plain and mountains are in the background.
    Exhibited
    Tercentenary 2014 (97)
    Provenance
    Purchased for Cardiff Museum, 1901
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned, undated, no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    This painting has a double white ground, typical of Wilson, and the overall structure, as revealed by X-radiographs, is also convincing.
    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 Drawings
    D344 Banks of the Tiber 1757, Rhode Island Museum of Art, School of Design, Providence
    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
    P145 Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
    P145A Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    P145B Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
    P146 Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    P146A Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Gemaldegalerie Alta Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    P146B Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), 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
    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 monks 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 first of three main variants of the composition, two figures are shown seated under the parasol and there is a sapling behind and to the left of the trees at the right. 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
    The Connoisseur, April 1923; WGC, p. 228 under pl. 122b; Wilson and Europe 2014 (97)
    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). None, however, seem to have been exhibited during Wilson's lifetime. 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
    Kate Lowry has noted: Linen canvas. Glue relined. Double layer of commercially-prepared white ground. The X-ray image reveals a tower centre right, subsequently painted out by the artist and some alteration to the outlines of the foreground rock and the umbrella. The IR image shows no evidence of underdrawing. In general the evidence suggests that this painting may come from Wilson's studio and even originally from his hand.
    Updated by Compiler
    19/11/2020

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Banks of the Tiber 1757 Rhode Island Museum of Art, School of Design, Providence

    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

    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - I, Private Collection, London

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - II, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Gemaldegalerie Alta 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

    Exhibitions

    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
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