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    Lake Avernus - II (Lake Avernus with Bridge and Tower)

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    Lake Avernus - II (Lake Avernus with Bridge and Tower)
    Lake Avernus - II (Lake Avernus with Bridge and Tower)
    Lake Avernus - II (Lake Avernus with Bridge and Tower)
    Christie's Images Limited 2014
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio
    Title
    Lake Avernus - II (Lake Avernus with Bridge and Tower)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 42.7 x 52.9 cm
    Imperial: 16 3/4 x 20 7/8 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, England
    Wilson Online Reference
    P123A
    Description
    A view across the lake towards a lengthy bridge with buildings at its left end, a tower some way behind them and a river and mountains beyond. In the foreground, on the left, two umbrella pines frame the scene. In the centre are three figures, two men, one seated on a stone and one woman, or perhaps a monk, gesticulating. To the right are an open ancient sarcophagus, woodland and a hill. Behind the group of figures a man bends down to his boat on the lake and further out another boat is visible.
    Exhibited
    BI 1817 Pictures by Deceased Artists (22 - Small Landscape, lent by Thomas Stokes)
    Provenance
    Thomas Stokes, Bath; Sarah Hill by 1853; Captain R. Langton-Douglas; Christie's London 8 May 1936 (139 - 35 gns to Smith); Anon sale, Phillips 13 December 1994 (40); Anon sale, Christie's 16 June 2000 (51)
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned though it is just possible that a mark in the lower left corner was once a monogram or intended as one; no inscription
    Techniques and materials
    There is blue overpainting in the sky and in the spaces between the branches of the inner tree on the left. The edges of the clouds have been reinforced by a later hand. There is thin filmy white paint in the lower right foreground and streaks of it across the left background landscape. The three figures appear to have been overpainted in a chalky technique, the details to the lower right are coarsely defined and those on the tombstone are vague. However, the area of the undergrowth at the lower left has been painted over a reserve, revealing the ground. Much of the distant landscape is undifferentiated. The vertical outlining of the tree trunks to the left is is not very convincing but in the manner of Wilson.
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] On lower horizontal stretcher in white chalk: 51 16 June 2000
    Labels
    [1] Yellow round label stuck to stretcher, upper left: 51
    [2] Christie's label stuck to stretcher, upper left: 1/2 page | 6212 | 07016318
    [3] Sale stencil in black ink, upper left: SP491
    Subject
    Lake Avernus, north west of Naples, located in the Phlegraean (burning) fields, was the most charming of the Phlegraean lakes and was depicted by various vedutisti. To the Grand Tourists and artists of the 18th century, the area was particularly rich in classical associations. Since ancient times the caves and volcano in the area had given rise to the belief that the entrance to Hades, the underworld, was located there. Virgil's Aeneid also related how Aeneas, landing near Avernus, asked the Cumaean Sybil to prophesy his future and was led by her into Hades to meet the ghost of his father, who foretold his destiny.
    Related Drawings
    D382 Italian Landscape with Umbrella Pine in Foreground, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection
    Related Prints
    E16 James Roberts after Wilson, A View in Italy, 1765, The British Museum and other impressions
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Works by Other Artists
    [1] J.M.W. Turner, Wilson Sketchbook, 1796-97, pp. 100-101, Tate, London
    [2] William Delamotte (1775-1863), Lake Avernus, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (WA1961.36)
    Critical commentary
    One of a number of 'good breeders' emanating from Wilson's visit(s) to Lake Avernus.
    Bibliography
    WGC, p. 103 under 'Stokes'
    More Information
    Wilson visited Lake Avernus in 1752 and again in the Spring of 1753 with his patron, William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth. As a result, he painted two pictures of the area. He himself, his pupils and copyists replicated both subjects on many occasions.
    Condition/Conservation
    Recently relined and revarnished. Some vertical losses in a line about 10 cm out from the left edge, probably reflecting the shape of an earlier frame. The present frame is nineteenth- or early twentieth-century, carved and re-used Rococesque.
    Updated by Compiler
    2021-12-10 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Italian Landscape with Umbrella Pine in Foreground, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Leonora Gurley Memorial Collection

    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 - II, Tate, London
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - II, UK Government Art Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Lake Avernus - II, Private Collection, England

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
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