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    300 years
    Return to "Fagan 1885" is linked to these Works 36 items
    of 36

    Celadon and Amelia

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    Celadon and Amelia
    Celadon and Amelia
    Celadon and Amelia
    The Trustees of the British Museum
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    Artist
    William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801) after Wilson
    Title
    Celadon and Amelia
    Date
    1766
    Medium
    Etching and engraving
    Dimensions
    Metric: 446 x 548 mm
    Imperial: 17 9/16 x 21 9/16 in.
    Collection
    The British Museum. To license image, click here
    Accession Number
    S,1.33
    Wilson Online Reference
    E18C
    Description
    Celadon is seen at the centre, looking to the heavens with his arms outstretched in disbelief and grief. Amelia lies dead at his feet. In the background, there is a house with a shepherd driving his sheep up a hill, on which there is a fortress; to right. There is a bay with stormy seas and a broken bridge. The sky is dark with storm clouds, though clearing to the right of the fortress.
    Exhibited
    London, Cardiff and New Haven 1982-83 (112 - not this impression but one of several others at the British Museum)
    Signature/inscription
    Lettered below the image 'R.Wilson pinxit' and 'Browne Aqua forti fecit. Woollett Sculpt | Londini'; title in centre
    Subject
    The subject derives from The Seasons by the Scottish poet and playwright, James Thomson (1700-1748) - specifically Summer (ll. 1191 ff.), first published in 1727.
    Related Drawings
    D135 Broken Trees on a Mountain, The British Museum
    D362 Study for Celadon and Amelia, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    The engraving is of an unlocated painting exhibited by Wilson at the Society of Artists in 1765 (157), entitled A Summer Storm with the Story of the Two Lovers from Thompson (Celadon and Amelia). Its original owner is cited as William Lock of Norbury, the artist's travelling companion from Venice to Rome 15 years previously. Solkin has described the subject as a modern, English, Christian equivalent to the 'Destruction of the Children of Niobe' (see P90 and other versions), noting that such a moral theme was well suited to a landscape painter of Wilson's Grand Style pretensions. The design appropriately recalls storm scenes by Gaspard Dughet and mountain views by Salvator Rosa, both of whom were admired by Thomson.
    Bibliography
    Fagan 1885, p. 26 cat. LVII, 5th State; WGC, p. 165 under pl. 24b; Clayton 1997, pp. 190, 193, 205; Solkin 1982, pp. 220-21 (entry on one of several impressions at the British Museum); S. Mitchell, 'James Thomson's Picture Collection and British History Painting', Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 23, no. 1 (2011), pp. 127-28; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 284 (entry on E18, an impression at YCBA)
    More Information
    WGC notes that a line engraving of the composition, published in France by J.J. Avril (1771-1835) and derived from the Woollett engraving, in earlier impressions has the name of Wilson as painter but substitutes that of Vernet in later impressions.

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Broken Trees on a Mountain, The British Museum
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Study for Celadon and Amelia, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

    Versions

    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, The British Museum
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, The British Museum
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • William Woollett (1735-1785) and John Browne (1741-1801)after Wilson, Celadon and Amelia, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983

    Biographies

    • John Browne (1742-1801)
    • William Woollett (1735-1785)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Louis Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonné of the engraved Works of William Woollett
    • Timothy Clayton, The English Print, 1688-1802
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