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 "WGC" is linked to these Works 387 items
    of 387

    Lake Avernus - I

    This item is active and ready to use
    Lake Avernus - I
    Lake Avernus - I
    Lake Avernus - I
    York Art Gallery / York Museums Trust, presented by F.D. Lycett Green through The Art Fund, 1955
    title=Credit line
    Larger ImageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and later intervention
    Title
    Lake Avernus - I
    Date
    Undated
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 43.2 x 54 cm
    Imperial: 17 3/4 x 21 3/4 in.
    Collection
    York Art Gallery. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    834
    Wilson Online Reference
    P122A
    Description
    [PLEASE NOTE: THIS ENTRY IS IN COURSE OF EDITING]
    A view across the lake towards a large ruined building with hills and mountains beyond. In the foreground, on the left, stand some trees. In the centre, there are three figures, two men, one seated on a log and one woman, or perhaps a monk, gesticulating. To the right are an open ancient sarcophagus, woodland and a hill topped by ancient buildings. Behind the group of figures a man bends down to his boat on the lake and further out another boat is visible.
    Exhibited
    City of York Art Gallery 1955 Inaugural Exhibition, The Lycett Green Collection (123)
    Provenance
    Presented by F.D. Lycett Green through the National Art Collections Fund, 1955
    Labels
    [1] Old label on stretcher: 'A picture of Wilson purchased by my father of Mr. Collins of New Cavendish Street who had it from a Mrs. M[oria], Lord Pembroke's sister, John White, 1820; 1949 Barbizon House; bt F.D. Lycett Green'.
    Subject
    Lake Avernus lies on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy, about a mile from Cumae. Filling the crater of an extinct volcano, mephitic vapours rise from its waters, precluding life on its banks, because of which it was believed to be the entrance to the Underworld by the Ancients. Thus in Book Six of Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas sacrifices to the gods in the shadow of the forest surrounding Lake Avernus and then follows the Cumaean Sibyl into her cave and down into the Underworld. However, the exact location is not certain but has been identified as including the 'Temple of Apollo' and the scene is based on views in the Phlegraean Fields, rearranged with Wilsonian licence. The elements are Lake Avernus, Lake Lucrino (middle distance), the Bay of Baia (distance). The mountain is Monte Gauro.
    Related Prints
    E16 James Roberts after Wilson, A View in Italy, The British Museum
    E16A James Roberts after Wilson, Lake Avernus (A View in Italy), National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    The gesturing woman might be intended as a sybil, though she is probably buying fish from the men. The ruined building has traditionally been identified as the 'Temple of Apollo'.
    Bibliography
    WGC p. 194, pl. 69a recorded version 3; York Art Gallery Catalogue 1963, inv. no. 834 pl. 19 as ascribed.
    More Information
    This painting was part of a collection of 117 works belonging to the industrialist and engineer F.D. Lycett Green and bequeathed to York through the National Art-Collections Fund, in 1955, in recognition of the remarkable efforts made after the Second World War by its curator to transform it into a gallery of international importance.
    Condition/Conservation
    Relined. There is a line about 1.3 cm. in from each vertical edge where the canvas appears to have been once folded
    Updated by Compiler
    2025-06-13 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • James Roberts after Wilson, A View in Italy, The British Museum
    • James Roberts after Wilson, Lake Avernus (A View in Italy), National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I (Lake Avernus with the Temple of Apollo in the Distance) , Private Collection, Wales
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I, Galerie Hans, Hamburg
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I (Lake Avernus with Figures in the Foreground and the Temple of Apollo beyond), Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I, Philadelphia Museum of Art
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I, Private Collection, England
    • Richard Wilson and Studio Lake Avernus - I (Classical Landscape, Lake Avernus), Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - I (View in Italy, Lake Avernus), Magdalen College, Oxford

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy