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    300 years
    Return to "Ford 1948" is linked to these Works 23 items
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    Ponte Molle, Monte Mario

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    Ponte Molle, Monte Mario
    Ponte Molle, Monte Mario
    Ponte Molle, Monte Mario
    The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Ponte Molle, Monte Mario
    Date
    Dated 1754
    Medium
    Black chalk heightened with white on grey laid paper laid down on buff laid paper within original lilac wash border
    Dimensions
    Metric: Object size: 356 x 491 mm; drawing size: 283 x 417 mm
    Imperial: Object size: 14 x 19 5/16 in.; drawing size: 11 1/8 x 16 3/8 in.
    Collection
    The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    57.7
    Wilson Online Reference
    D302
    Description
    A scene from high ground above the Milvian Bridge (Ponte Molle), Rome, with Monte Mario on the right and St Peter's in the distance beyond a bend in the River Tiber. In the left foreground are two monks and a pilgrim with staff.
    Exhibited
    Birmingham 1948-49 (73); London 1949 (72); J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA Rome the Grand Tour, October 2001 - August 2002; Tercentenary 2014 (63)
    Provenance
    William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, who commissioned it in Rome in 1753; by descent until lost; rediscovered by Lady Dartmouth, Patshull House, Wolverhampton 1948; Christie's 29 January 1954 (6); Thomas Agnew & Sons, 43, Old Bond Street, London W.1.; purchased by The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, October 1957
    Signature/inscription
    See 'Mount Inscriptions'
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Upper left corner, pencil: 7390 GWGA
    [2] Upper right corner in an old hand, graphite: 56
    [3] Upper right corner in a different hand, graphite: 72 [?]
    Mount inscriptions
    [1] Signed and dated on coloured border lower left: R.W. Romae. 1754.
    [2] Inscribed in black ink on white cartellino lower centre: Ponte Molle | Monte Mario Vc. [?] or Vi. [?]
    [3] Inscribed on added piece of coloured border lower right: No. 4
    Subject
    The Ponte Milvio or Molle was renowned primarily as the place where the Roman Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius on 28 October 312 AD.
    Related Drawings
    D228 Ionic Capitals, Private Collection, England
    Related Prints
    E72/38 Hastings after Wilson, View on the Tiber with Rome in the Distance, The British Museum
    Related Paintings
    P64 Rome from the Ponte Molle, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] Francis Towne (1739-1816): The Ponte Molle, watercolour, 1781, The British Museum (Nn,1.20)
    Critical commentary
    One of a major series of drawings commissioned by William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801) in 1754, of which 25 are known to survive. The Dartmouth set is the most important group of the artist's finished compositions on paper. Originally numbering 68, the drawings were highly prized by the earl and much admired by connoisseurs of the day including William Lock of Norbury, and the artists John Hoppner and Joseph Farington. Hoppner said of them, 'they were such as the Greeks would have made & put all others at a distance' and Farington was almost certainly referring to them when he characterised Wilson's drawings as having 'all the qualities of his pictures except the colour.' Drawings from the set are distinguished by a white mount with lilac wash border, on which the artist attached a small white label, bearing the title of the work.The Ionic capitals lying in the centre foreground are taken from Wilson's study D228 Ionic Capitals, Private Collection, England.
    Bibliography
    Farington Diary, vol. 7, p. 2775 (1 June 1806); Farington Biographical Note p. 12; Ford 1948, fig. 4, p. 345, no. 4; Ford 1951, p. 60, no. 59; WGC, pp. 219-20, pl. 109a; Apollo, May 1967; Clark & Bowron 1985, p. 267 under cat. 195; Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 252
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/126
    More Information
    This is one of 20 views of the environs of Rome referred to by Thomas Jenkins in a letter dated 1 June 1754. Of these only no. 1 is missing from the serial numbers recorded in the lower right corner of each. All the Dartmouth drawings have numbers in graphite on the back, ranging (with gaps) from 23 to 61, thus supporting the total of 68 given by Farington. The mounts of all the surviving Dartmouth drawings, with their lilac wash borders, were made by Wilson or under his direction, perhaps by Jenkins.
    Condition/Conservation
    Very good condition overall. Some spotting, lower centre. A small piece of coloured paper has been added to the border at the lower right corner, perhaps to make up for a mismeasurement or to cover an earlier inscription.

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Ionic Capitals, Private Collection, England

    Prints

    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, View on the Tiber with Rome in the Distance, The British Museum

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), Rome from the Ponte Molle, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Exhibitions

    • Birmingham City Art Gallery, 17 November 1948 - 9 January 1949
    • 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

    • William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731-1801)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
    • Anthony M. Clark and Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text
    • Brinsley Ford, 'The Dartmouth Collection of Drawings by Richard Wilson'
    • Brinsley Ford, Three Centuries of British Water-Colours and Drawings
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