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    The White Monk - II

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    The White Monk - II
    The White Monk - II
    The White Monk - II
    Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton MA
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The White Monk - II
    Date
    c.1765-75 (undated)
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 92.4 x 129.5 cm
    Imperial: 36 3/8 x 51 in.
    Collection
    Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    SC 1954.63
    Wilson Online Reference
    P145B
    Description
    In the foreground two women are resting on the grass while a man brings up an open parasol behind them. A rider descends beyond the bank to their left. In the left foreground is a prominent boulder, against which rests a stick, with others scattered nearby. There are two large trees on the right and in the left middle distance, a wooded cliff with a waterfall, surmounted by a square tower with adjoining buildings, and a promontory on the edge of which is silhouetted a wayside cross with two figures in prayer before it. A winding river, town and mountains are seen in the right background and birds are flying in the sky.
    Exhibited
    London, Cardiff and New Haven, 1982-3 (104)
    Provenance
    Christie's 31 May 1946 (67); bt Agnews, London, and with them, 1949; acquired by exchange 1954
    Signature/inscription
    10/12/2020
    Subject
    The subject and thence the meaning remain open to multiple interpretations. David Solkin memorably explained its attraction as a moral landscape by an emblematic interpretation of the Platonic philosophical concept of concordia discors, or the harmonious union of opposing elements, where 'the chaotic multiplicity of nature has yielded to the ordering hand of art.' (Solkin 1982, p. 66). He saw the inclusion of monks on the promontory as reassurance of a world anchored in divinely ordained harmony and reinforcing the moral certitude and authority of the patrician class who patronised the artist.
    Related Prints
    E17 James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum and other impressions
    E72/22 Thomas Hastings after Wilson, The White Monk, 1822, The British Museum (1854,0708.79)
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Related Paintings
    P144 The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    P144A Richard Wilson and Studio, The White Monk - I, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    NWP144E Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    P144F The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    P146 The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    P146A The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    P146B The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
    P147 Studio of Wilson, The White Monk - IV, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    P147A Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - IV (Italian Landscape, with white Monk), Museums Sheffield
    Critical commentary
    As noted by Martin Postle (Wilson and Europe 2014, p. 281) Wilson in this composition establishes a characteristic contrast between the constrictions of organised religion and the dolce far niente symbolised by the relaxed figures in the foreground. Postle also posited a more exact setting than previously acknowledged, e.g. by W.G. Constable, who recorded that it had sometimes been identified as Tivoli or a lower part of the Aniene gorge. He proposed the upper Aniene valley, looking east towards the Prenestini mountains and the rocky outcrops of Mentorella and Guadagnolo. This is an area associated historically with a chain of Benedictine monasteries, thus providing context for the presence of religious observants on the promontory. The White Monk was the most frequently repeated of all Wilson's compositions, a classic 'good breeder' as the artist described them (Wright 1824, p. 33). In this second of three main variants of the composition, two women are shown seated on the ground as a man brings up a parasol for them. There is no sapling behind and to the left of the trees at the right. A wayside cross is silhouetted at the extremity of the cliffs. This version is one of only three known of the second stage of the composition. It is closely linked to a studio painting without the figures by the parasol, recently attributed to William Hodges by Jonathan Yarker (P147). The popular title, The White Monk, was applied first to a print made from a different version of the composition, then belonging to Lady Ford and published in Hastings 1825 (E72/22).
    Bibliography
    WGC, pp. 227-30 (unrecorded version of pl.122b); Sutton & Clements 1968, vol. 2, p. 47, fig. 54; Solkin 1982, pp. 66-70, 215; M. Postle, 'Meditations on The White Monk' in J. Clifton & M. Kervandjian eds., A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 2016, pp. 100-113, esp. pp. 103-104 & p. 106
    Link to WG Constable Archive Record
    WGC/1/1/138
    More Information
    The large number of known versions of The White Monk confirm it as one of Wilson's most popular pictures - well over 30 survive, including those made by studio assistants and copyists. All seem to have been executed in Britain after the painter's return from Italy in 1757 and most of them after 1765, when an engraving was published by James Roberts (E17). Nevertheless the composition does not seem to have been exhibited. Three main variant compositions were defined by W.G. Constable and the present compiler has retained his system, entitling them The White Monk - I, etc.
    Updated by Compiler
    2020-12-10 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Prints

    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), The British Museum
    • James Roberts after Wilson, The White Monk (Untitled), National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Thomas Hastings after Wilson, The White Monk, 1822, The British Museum (1854,0708.79)

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - II, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The White Monk - II, National Museum Wales, Cardiff

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - I, Toledo Museum of Art
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) and Studio, The White Monk - I, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - I, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - I, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Private Collection
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The White Monk - III, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
    • Studio of Wilson, The White Monk - IV, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The White Monk - IV (Italian Landscape, with white Monk), Museums Sheffield

    Exhibitions

    • London, Tate Gallery, Cardiff, National Museum of Wales, and New Haven, Conn., Yale Center for British Art, 3 November 1982 - 19 June 1983

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    • 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
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