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    300 years
    Return to "Wilson and Europe 2014 " is linked to these Works 122 items
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    Coastal Scene

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    Coastal Scene
    Coastal Scene
    Coastal Scene
    The Trustees of the British Museum
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Coastal Scene
    Date
    c.1751 (undated)
    Medium
    Red and black chalk on paper
    Dimensions
    Metric: 114 x 184 mm
    Imperial: 4 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
    Collection
    The British Museum. To license image, click here
    Accession Number
    1881,0212.47
    Wilson Online Reference
    D91
    Description
    There are inlets with overhanging cliffs to the right and in the background. Set back on the foremost cliff is a tower, and another appears on a distant promontory. In front at the left are some rocks on which two men are standing. There are two others in a boat to the right, and more boats can be seen under the cliffs.
    Exhibited
    London 1949 (115b); London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-83 (15); Tercentenary 2014 (7)
    Provenance
    Given by John Deffett Francis, February 1881
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    The mixture of red and black chalk is unusual for Wilson but the drawing may be seen as an exercise in the basics of rococo landscape design
    Related Works by Other Artists
    Claude-Joseph Vernet, Seashore, Hermitage, St Petersburg
    Critical commentary
    This is one of a number of apparently fantastic landscapes produced by Wilson during his first year in Italy. He arrived in Venice in October or November 1750 and stayed there for about a year. The drawing may have been executed in Venice itself or soon afterwards, during his journey south to Rome, but in any case it is not likely to be topographical. As noted by Solkin, the use of different colours, unusual for Wilson, here produces a thoughtful arrangement of chiaroscuro so as to form a decorative pattern within the conventions of rococo landscape design. The composition in general terms bears some resemblance to Seashore and similar paintings by Claude-Joseph Vernet, who was to become a major influence on Wilson's development as a landscape painter in Rome.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    851/11 (30)
    Bibliography
    Binyon 51(b); Solkin 1982, p. 154; Wilson and Europe 2014, pp. 210-11

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983
    • London, Tate Gallery, 22 January - 14 March 1949
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014

    Biographies

    • John Deffett Francis (1815-1901)

    Documents

    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists and Artists of Foreign Origin working in Great Britain preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
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