Solitude - I

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Solitude - I

Photograph courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

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Artist

Studio of Wilson

Title

Solitude - I

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Metric: 102 x 127 cm; sight size: 99.5 x 124.7 cm
Imperial: 40 3/16 x 50 in; sight size: 39 3/16 x 49 1/8 in.

Collection

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. To license image, click here.

Accession Number

NGI.528

Wilson Online Reference

P114A

Description

An elderly bearded monk or hermit and his younger seated companion pass the day in study and contemplation by a still dark pool. Their peace is contrasted with the shattered sculpture of a lion to the right, whose head lies on the ground, almost unobserved, looking back towards its own ruins. The rich wooded landscape is dominated by oak trees, associated in the 18th century with pre-Christian druids. In the far distance a religious ceremony takes place in a sunlit glade with a monastery visible beyond. At the lower left is an amphora next to a ribbon bearing an almost illegible inscription. The back of the pool has been brought further forward than in other versions.

Provenance

Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913), etcher, museum curator, collector and connnoisseur; with Agnew 1901; purchased 1901 by Sir Walter Armstrong for the National Gallery of Ireland and transferred 1905

Signature/inscription

Inscribed on ribbon [?] lower left, virtually illegibly: S. Maria [?]

Techniques and materials

The foreground is bland and the composition sharply defined yet two-dimensional, notably the silhouetted tree trunks and building behind them, giving a theatrical appearance overall. The lion is not as detailed as in the other versions and the area to the right of the friars is generalised.

Subject

From 1778 at latest the composition was linked to James Thomson's very popular poem, The Seasons - Summer (1730 edition, lines 439-447, slightly modified; 1746 edition, lines 513-521; later editions, lines 516-524):

'Still let me pierce into the midnight Depth
Of yonder Grove, of wildest, largest Growth:
That, forming high in Air a woodland Quire,
Nods o'er the Mount beneath. At every Step,
Solemn, and slow, the Shadows blacker fall,
And all is awful listening Gloom around.
These are the Haunts of Meditation,
These the Scenes Where antient Bards th'inspiring Breath,
Extatic, felt: and from this World retir'd.'

Related Drawings

D275 A Great Stone, Italy, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
D359 Solitude, Study for a Picture, c.1762, The British Museum (1881,0212.3)

Related Prints

E44 William Woollett and William Ellis after Wilson Solitude, 1778, National Museum Wales, Cardiff, and other impressions.
E57 Charles Duttenhofer after Wilson,Solitude, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven and other impressions

Versions

See 'Links' tab

Related Works by Other Artists

[1] Thomas Smith of Derby, Solitude, 1758, etching and engraving, Derby Museums Trust and other impressions
[2] Johann Christian Reinhart, Arcadian Landscape with Three Figures at a Lake, drawing, 1792, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund (2007.264)
[3] Adolf Friedrich Harper (1725-1806), Landscape with Ruins, 1798, Schloss Ludwigsburg, Germany (3852)

Critical commentary

The contemplatives on the left are contrasted with the ruined statue of the lion to suggest that a life meditating on Christian values will lead to a wise and contented old age, whereas leonine violence and aggression will bring only tragic destruction. The glimpse of a sunlit Christian ceremony in the far background underlines this belief. The rich wooded landscape is a relatively uncharacteristic construction for Wilson. He usually preferred a prospect or a more Claudean setting but introduced this kind of enclosed composition in Italy in the 1750s in such works as P46 Ariccia - I and subsequently repeated it e.g. in P182 The Wilderness in St James's Park of the mid-1770s. Solitude first appeared as the title of this composition via the related print by Woollett and Ellis of 1778 (E44 etc.) David Solkin has argued that the composition gives emblematic form to the notion of rural retirement as a moral activity which allows mankind the opportunity to study and become aware of the greatness of God. This message was designed to appeal to patrician landowners, who liked to think of themselves as virtuous recluses in the private confines of their country estates - an 'aristocratic myth', suggesting that rural leisure was necessary to the acquisition of wisdom. The composition, with apparent references to ancient British virtues and liberties, proved popular and Wilson and his studio made a number of copies, of which this is one.

Bibliography

WGC, pp. 74, 98, 169, pl. 28a (version 2); Apollo, Feb. 1974; Potterton 1981, p. 180; H.E. Davies, Sir John Charles Robinson (1824-1913): His Role as a Connoisseur and Creator of public and private Collections, DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 1992, p. 365; D. Stacey, 'Thomas Smith of Derby (1720-67)' British Art Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 2016, pp. 10-11.

Link to WG Constable Archive Record

WGC/1/1/30

Condition/Conservation

Much old varnish has been ploughed into the paint. Kate Lowry has noted: Oil on canvas, glue-relined. Chalk date on reverse 'Oct 1916', possibly the date of the relining. Ground colour not visible as the work is thickly painted throughout. Outline of foliage and other forms is hard and rock shapes are less subtly modelled than is normal in Wilson's style. Also, there is very little foreground detail. Tonal range is very narrow with deep blue sky, harsh green foliage and flat grey rocks. Under UV light, minor retouches are visible throughout, but no major damages are present. Strong mature cracking is present throughout. Vection cracks suggest original stretcher bars were narrower.

Updated by Compiler

2022-09-23 00:00:00

Solitude - I

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