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
    "Solkin 1982" is linked to these Works
    of 176

    On Hounslow Heath

    On Hounslow Heath
    On Hounslow Heath
    On Hounslow Heath
    Tate, London 2014
    title=Credit line
    Larger imageShareFeedback
    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    On Hounslow Heath
    Date
    c.1765
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 43.8 x 54 cm
    Imperial: 17 1/4 x 21 1/4 in.
    Collection
    Tate, London. To license image, click here.
    Accession Number
    N05842
    Wilson Online Reference
    P131A
    Description
    An extensive landscape with a market woman in a red dress seated on a bank in the left foreground, her back to the viewer and a basket by her side. Beyond is a river, on the near bank of which donkeys and sheep are grazing. Upstream are a weir and a thickly-wooded island.
    Exhibited
    R.A. 1770 (a version); Sudbury 1991 (10)
    Provenance
    George Augustus Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck (1821-1891), 3 Grafton Street, London W.1 and Brownsea Island; sold Christie's 8 July 1891 (536), bt James; Mrs Arthur James, 3 Grafton Street London W.1. and Coton House Rugby; bequeathed to the National Gallery by Mrs Arthur James 1948; transferred to Tate Gallery 1955
    Techniques and materials
    Oil on plain weave linen canvas. Probably drying oil. Painted with a rich vehicular paste paint over imprimatura of pale earth pink below sky and water.Dark, warm brown earth below landscape.
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Stencil top right of horizontal top stretcher crossmember: 3 [?]7 4
    Subject
    The view shows part of the watermeadows beside the River Crane near Whitton Place, an estate on Hounslow Heath acquired in 1765 by Wilson's friend, the architect Sir William Chambers.
    Related Drawings
    D360 A View of On Hounslow Heath, Private Collection, UK, c/o Lowell Libson Ltd
    Related Prints
    Thomas Hastings after Richard Wilson:
    E72/1 The British Museum
    E72/1A The British Museum
    E72/1B Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
    Versions
    See 'Links' tab
    Critical commentary
    Perhaps a preliminary sketch for the finished version of the subject, shown at the Royal Academy in 1770. The site was undistinguished, not more than a piece of common nature and treated in the unpretentious manner of 17th century Dutch art. The attraction lies in the beauty of the sky and the reflections in the water. Solkin has suggested that such a picture would appeal to a new type of urban professional buyer, who looked to painting for simple pleasure and escape from the stresses of city life.
    Bibliography
    WGC, p.178, pl. 39b (version 2); Hayes 1964, p. 339; Herrmann 1973, p. 58; Solkin 1982, pp. 104-106, 220
    More Information
    In his introduction to Etchings from the Works of Ric. Wilson, with some Memoirs of his Life &c., Hastings says ''Paul Sandby was with Richard Wilson at the time the Sketch was amde for the subject of Honslow Heath (p.9). However it is unclear whether this refers to a drawing, an independent sketch in oil or the lay-in for the finished picture.
    Condition/Conservation
    Frame size: 65 x 75.4 x 11. 5 cm. Relined. Cleaned, retouched and revarnished on acquisition by the National Gallery in 1947. Cleaned and revarnished July 1954; cleaned February 1982.

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), A View of On Hounslow Heath, Private Collection, UK, c/o Lowell Libson Ltd

    Prints

    • Thomas Hastings after Richard Wilson, On Hounslow Heath, The British Museum
    • Thomas Hastings after Richard Wilson, On Hounslow Heath, Outer Suburb, West, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
    • Thomas Hastings after Richard Wilson, On Hounslow Heath, The British Museum

    Versions

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) On Hounslow Heath, Tate, London

    Exhibitions

    • Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, 17 August - 13 October 1991

    Biographies

    • Sir William Chambers (1722-1796)

    Documents

    • William George Constable, Richard Wilson
    • David Solkin, Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction
    © Richard Wilson OnlineCreditsCopyright & DisclaimerPrivacy