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    300 years
    Return to "WGC" is linked to these Works 387 items
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    Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius

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    Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
    Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
    Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
    Royal Academy of Arts, London
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    Landscape with the Crater of Vesuvius
    Date
    Dated lower right: 1756
    Medium
    Black and white chalk on laid paper which has been painted a light brown colour
    Dimensions
    Metric: 96 x 100 mm
    Imperial: 3 3/4 x 4 in.
    Collection
    Royal Academy of Arts, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    03/1877
    Wilson Online Reference
    D249
    Exhibited
    Tercentenary 2014 (50)
    Provenance
    William Lock of Norbury; his sale, Sotheby's, London 3-7 May 1821 (386); William Esdaile (1758-1837); Wellesley sale 1866 (748)
    Signature/inscription
    Signed lower left: R.W.f.
    Inscribed lower right: WE
    Collectors' marks
    [1] Recto lower right corner: William Esdaile (Lugt 2617)
    Related Drawings
    D250 Landscape with Vesuvius, Royal Academy of Arts, London (03/1876)
    D338 A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection)
    Related Prints
    E60/24 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Three Men with two Mules halting in a Field below a Volcano, The British Museum and other impressions
    E60/35 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Vesuvius, The British Museum and other impressions
    Related Works by Other Artists
    John Downman, The Crater of Vesuvius, watercolour, 1774, Tate, London (T10174)
    Critical commentary
    D249 and D250 both belonged to William Lock (1732-1810) who very probably visited Naples and the surrounding area with Wilson in 1752. Martin Postle has suggested that two such elegantly framed and presented pieces were created by the artist as a souvenir of their expedition to the crater of Vesuvius, also recorded in D53 Wilson's 1752 Sketchbook, Victoria and Albert Museum. The circular framing recurs on a larger scale in D338 A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection), which was also owned by Lock.
    Bibliography
    E.B. Jupp, Royal Academy Catalogue, vol. 1; WGC, p. 37; Spencer-Longhurst 2012, p. 65, fig. 36; Wilson and Europe 2014, pp. 240-241

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • The Crater of Vesuvius, The British Museum
    • Landscape with Vesuvius, Royal Academy of Arts, London)
    • A Skirmish in Rowing-Boats in the Bay of Baiae (Private Collection)

    Prints

    • E60/24 John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Three Men with two Mules halting in a Field below a Volcano, The British Museum and other impressions
    • John Whessell after Wilson, Studies & Designs: Vesuvius, The British Museum and other impressions

    Exhibitions

    • New Haven, Yale Center for British Art & Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, 6 March - 29 October 2014

    Biographies

    • William Lock 'of Norbury' (1732-1810)
    • William Esdaile (1758-1837)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • Paul Spencer-Longhurst, 'All the Quality of his Pictures except the Colour': Richard Wilson's Drawings as Collectors' Items
    • Martin Postle & Robin Simon, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting
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