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    300 years
    "Wilson and Europe 2014 " is linked to these Works
    of 122

    The White Monk - IV

    The White Monk - IV
    The White Monk - IV
    The White Monk - IV
    Royal Academy of Arts, London
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    Artist
    Studio of Wilson
    Title
    The White Monk - IV
    Date
    c.1760s (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 64.8 x 81.3 cm
    Imperial: 25 1/2 x 32 in.
    Collection
    Royal Academy of Arts, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    03/1083
    Wilson Online Reference
    P147
    Description
    A sunlit river landscape is seen against voluminous clouds. On the left is a prominent boulder, against which rests a stick, with others on the ground nearby. There are two large trees and a feathery sapling with a single bird on the right, and in the left middle distance, a wooded cliff and promontory, on the edge of which is silhouetted a gabled chapel with religious figures in obeisance before it. A hilltop town and mountains are in the background and other buildings on the plain below.
    Exhibited
    From 1992 on long-term loan to Salomon Brothers International, London; London 2012 (unnumbered); Tercentenary 2014 (98)
    Provenance
    Given by Frederick John Nettlefold, 1948
    Related Drawings
    D344 Richard Wilson, 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) and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P144 Richard Wilson, The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    P144A 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 Richard Wilson, The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    P145 Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
    P145A Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    P145B Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
    P146 Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    P146A Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    P146B Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
    Critical commentary
    P147 and P147A differ from other versions of The White Monk in having no seated figures or parasol in the right foreground. Of the three main variants of the subject, the present work is closest in composition to P144 The White Monk - I (Toledo Museum of Art), having a wayside shrine rather than a cross on the promontory and no buildings at the upper left. However, the style is not that of Wilson himself. The tiny figures on the promontory are certainly not his and there is uncharacteristic sharp impasto in the rock and the waterfall. The name of his pupil, William Hodges has recently been proposed by Jonathan Yarker. Martin Postle has recently suggested 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. Postle 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.
    Previous Cat/Ref Nos
    PL008709
    Bibliography
    Grundy & Roe, vol. 4, pp. 148 & 150-51, repr. col.; WGC, p. 228, pl. 122a version II, 7; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 282
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/138
    Condition/Conservation
    Dimensions framed: 66.5 x 83.9 x 20 cm (26 3/16 x 33 x 7 7/8 in.). Roman nineteenth-century frame, composition gilded with backing of kapaboard. A conservation report dated 18 October 1995, gives details of a patch on the reverse, repainting of a hole at the upper left (from reverse); also old fill and overpaint over a hole in the tree trunk. Light blue infilling at the right edge.
    Updated by Compiler
    12/01/2021

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson, 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 - IV (Italian Landscape, with white Monk), Sheffield Galleries and Museums

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    • Richard Wilson and Studio, The White Monk - I, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - II, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    • Richard Wilson, The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

    Exhibitions

    • London, Royal Academy, 8 December 2012 - 17 February 2013
    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014

    Biographies

    • William Hodges (1744-1797)
    • Frederick John Nettlefold (1867-1949)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • C. Reginald Grundy & F. Gordon Roe, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the Collection of Frederick John Nettlefold
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