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    300 years
    "Catalogue 1814" is linked to these Works
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    The Destruction of Niobe's Children

    The Destruction of Niobe's Children
    The Destruction of Niobe's Children
    The Destruction of Niobe's Children
    ex-National Gallery; destroyed 1944
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The Destruction of Niobe's Children
    Date
    c.1760 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 116.8 x 167.6 cm
    Imperial: 46 x 66 in.
    Collection
    ex-National Gallery; destroyed 1944
    Wilson Online Reference
    P90B
    Description
    Eleven of Niobe's children are killed in a dramatic, lightning-filled landscape, which owes much to the influence of Gaspard Dughet and to a lesser extent, Claude-Joseph Vernet. Wilson's stormy setting emphasises the horror of the narrative by the broken trees, reeds bent with the wind, tumultuous seas, the stormy skies, with lightning striking the mountain and the lurid light on the distant horizon.
    Exhibited
    BI 1814 (165/169 - Niobe); London. International Exhibition 1862 (62); London 1925 (51); Manchester 1925 (60)
    Provenance
    Joseph Wilton, sculptor (d. 1803); bt by Sir George Beaumont, Bart; presented by him to the National Gallery, London, 1826; destroyed by enemy action, 1944
    Subject
    This painting was inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 6, lines 144-312. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and Queen of Thebes, is punished for having dared to suggest, because she had seven sons and seven daughters, that she was superior to the goddess Leto (or Latona). Apollo and Artemis, children of Leto, killed all of Niobe's offspring in revenge and she herself wept until she was turned into stone.
    Related Drawings
    D53/35 Niobe from An Italian Sketchbook Victoria & Albert Museum Sketchbook p. 35
    D280/27 Study of two Herms, Italian Sketchbook, 1754, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven, p. 28(r)
    D325 The Children of Niobe, The British Museum
    D355 Recumbent Male Nude, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    D369 Ascribed to Wilson, Landscape Study, Victoria & Albert Museum
    Related Prints
    E52 William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, 1788, National Museum Wales, Cardiff (NMW A 11416)
    E54 William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson Niobe, 1792, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    E54A William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
    E58 William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, 1803, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1577/3)
    E79/1 Samuel Lacey after Wilson, Niobe, The British Museum
    E79/3 John Charles Varrall after Wilson, Niobe, The National Gallery, No. 1
    E86 William James Linton after Wilson, Niobe, The British Museum
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] Gaspard Dughet, The Cascade, late 1660s, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
    [2] William Hodges (1744-1797) after Wilson, Niobe, graphite, brown and white chalk, 370 x 425 mm, ex-Paul Sandby collection, Christie's 12 December 1981 (40i). Location unknown.
    [3] Jacques-Louis David, Apollo and Diana attacking the Children of Niobe, 1772, Dallas Museum of Art, USALocation unknown.
    Bibliography
    J. Spence, Polymetis, Book 2, London 1747, pp. 96-100 and 111; Booth Notes Doc. 5, p. 1; Edwards 1808, pp. 79, 82-86; Catalogue 1814, p. 20; Smith 1828,vol. 1, p. 139; Hazlitt 1843-44, vol. 1, p. iii, no. 110; Cook & Wedderburn, vol. 4, p. 308; Whitley 1800-1820, p. 183; Borenius 1944; Grant 1945; Waterhouse 1953, p. 176, pl. 142; WGC, pp. 42, 87, 160-63, pl. 18; J. Ziff, 'Backgrounds: Introduction of Architecture and Landscape: A Lecture by J.M.W. Turner', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, vol. 26, 1963, pp. 146-47; Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 13, fig. 14
    More Information
    In a lecture given as Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy on 12 February 1811, J.M.W. Turner remarked, 'In vain did [Wilson's] pictures of Niobe in possession of Sir George Beaumont and the Duke of Gloucester flash conviction of his powers.'
    Updated by Compiler
    2021-09-21 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Studies and Designs done in Rome in the Year 1752, p. 35 Niobe, Victoria & Albert Museum
    • Study of two Herms, Italian Sketchbook, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven, p. 28(r)
    • The Children of Niobe, The British Museum
    • Recumbent Male Nude, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Ascribed to Wilson, Landscape Study, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

    Prints

    • William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • William Sharp and Samuel Smith after WIlson, Niobe, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
    • William Sharp and Samuel Smith after Wilson, Niobe, 1803, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (1577/3)
    • Samuel Lacey after Wilson, Niobe,c.1836, The British Museum
    • John Charles Varrall after Wilson, Niobe, The National Gallery, No. 1
    • William James Linton after Wilson, XXIII Destruction of the Children of Niobe, The British Museum

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, Private Collection at Ashridge, England
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Destruction of Niobe's Children, Private Collection, Devon
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The Destruction of the Children of Niobe, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • Studio of Wilson, Apollo destroying the Children of Niobe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

    Exhibitions

    • London, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), 26 June - 30 September 1925
    • Manchester City Art Gallery, 22 October - 5 December 1925
    • London, British Institution, 1814
    • London, South Kensington, 1 May - 15 November 1862

    Biographies

    • Sir George Beaumont (1753-1827)
    • Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789)
    • Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • John Thomas Smith, Nollekens and his Times
    • Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790
    • Edward Edwards, Anecdotes of Painters who have resided or been born in England; with critical Remarks on their Productions
    • Col. Maurice Harold Grant, 'Richard Wilson's Niobe'
    • Denys Sutton & Ann Clements, An Italian Sketchbook by Richard Wilson, RA: Drawings made by the Artist in Rome and its Environs in the Year 1754
    • Anonymous, Catalogue of Pictures by the late William Hogarth, Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough, and J. Zoffani. Exhibited by permission of the proprietors in honour of the memory of those distinguished artists, and for the improvement of British art
    • Edward Tyas Cook & John Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin Library Edition
    • Anon [Tancred Borenius], Richard Wilson's 'Niobe'
    • William Thomas Whitley, Art in England 1800-1820
    • Benjamin Booth, Unpublished Notes, Document 5: List of Wilson's Works with Owners
    • William Hazlitt, Criticisms on Art
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