Skip to content
Log inRegister
    HomePaintingsDrawingsPrintsBrowse all worksWilson collectionsWilson collections mapTercentenary exhibitionOther exhibitionsProject highlightsThemes and mediaBiographiesBibliographical Resources
    Advanced search
    Work of ArtBiographiesExhibitionsBibliographical Resources
    Settings
    Pages
    300 years
    Return to "Wilson and Europe 2014 " is linked to these Works 122 items
    of 122

    The White Monk - III

    This item is active and ready to use
    The White Monk - III
    The White Monk - III
    The White Monk - III
    Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library
    title=Credit line
    Larger imageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The White Monk - III
    Date
    Undated
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 54.4 x 72.3 cm
    Imperial: 20 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, UK
    Wilson Online Reference
    P146
    Description
    In the foreground two women are resting on the grass while a rider descends behind the bank to their left. There are two large trees and a sapling on the right and in the left middle distance, a wooded cliff with a waterfall, surmounted by a gabled building, and a promontory on the edge of which is silhouetted a wayside cross with religious figures in prayer before it. A town and mountains are seen in the right background.
    Exhibited
    Denver Art Museum, 600 Years of British Painting: The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 1998-99
    Provenance
    Commissioned in Rome by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, c.1754-55, or perhaps bought by him from Jacob, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1749-1828), Longford Castle, Wiltshire or the Hon. Edward Bouverie in 1799; by descent to John Sutherland Egerton, 5th Earl of Ellesmere, later 6th Duke of Sutherland (1915-2000); Ellesmere sale, Christie's London, 18 October 1946 (175), bt Drown (350 gns); anonymous sale [The Property of a deceased Estate]; Sotheby's, London, 9 April 1997 (54); William and Bernadette Berger, Denver Collection, Denver; Christie's, New York, 26 January 2001 (63); Private Collection, Ireland; Christie's London, 6 December 2018 (34); Private Collection, UK
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    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 Prints
    E17 James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum and other impressions
    E68 Anonymous after Wilson, The White Monk, c. 1818, The British Museum and other impressions
    E70 Samuel Middiman after Wilson, The White Monk (Landscape with two Pilgrims praying at a wooden Cross on Rocks at the left), 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
    P144 Richard Wilson, The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    P144A Richard 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
    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), Sheffield Galleries and Museums
    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 religious observants 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). P146, the third of the three main variants of the composition, includes a sapling behind and to the left of the trees at the right but no large boulder with stick in the left foreground. It is distinguished by the absence of a parasol and in having two women only under the tree at the right. A gabled building replaces the more usual tower at the extreme left. 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). In view of its provenance from the Duke of Bridgewater's collection, P146 is likely to be the version of the painting from which James Roberts took his engraving (E17 &c).
    Bibliography
    W.Y. Ottley, The Marquis of Stafford's Collection of Pictures, London 1818, vol. 4, p. 141, no. 5, Class VI, repr.; Hazlitt 1843-44, vol. 2, p. xlv, no. 290 Landscape, with Figures seated; WGC, pp. 89 & 228, pl. 123a type III (version 3); 600 Years of British Painting: The Berger Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 1998-99, Denver 1998, p. 227, repr; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 137, fig. 115; P. Humfrey, 'The 3rd Duke of Bridgewater as a Collector of Old Master Paintings', Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 27, no. 2, 2015, pp. 214, 224, n. 28; M. Postle, 'Meditations on The White Monk' in J. Clifton & M. Kervandjian eds., A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 2016, pp. 100-113, esp. pp. 103-104; P. Humfrey, The Stafford Gallery, 2019, pp. 56, 58, fig. 29
    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. With the possible exception of the present work, all seem to have been executed in Britain after the painter's return from Italy in 1757 and most of them after 1765, when the engraving was published by James Roberts (E17 &c.). Nevertheless the composition does not seem to have been exhibited. 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
    Relined pre-1946. Much restored and paint surface squeezed and flattened, especially in the sky.
    Updated by Compiler
    2022-05-04 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum
    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Anonymous after Wilson, The White Monk (Stafford Gallery), The British Museum
    • Samuel Middiman after Wilson, The White Monk (Landscape with two Pilgrims praying at a wooden Cross on Rocks at the left), The British Museum
    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, The White Monk, 1822, The British Museum (1854,0708.79)

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

    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
    • 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

    Biographies

    • Lord Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • William Hazlitt, Criticisms on Art
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy