This exhibition was one of several timed to celebrate the tercentenary of Wilson's birth. It comprised 48 paintings and works on paper including 18 paintings and ten drawings by Wilson. The works included represented decades of discerning collecting, starting in the 18th century with Benjamin Booth who amassed the largest collection of Richard Wilsons of his day. It was continued in the 19th century by his grandson Richard Ford, an author, traveller and connoisseur who developed a long association with Spain, where he lived between 1830 and 1833. His descendant, Sir Brinsley Ford extended the tradition in the 20th century, adding to areas already notably present as well as introducing his own interests. Taken as a whole the works exhibited here demonstrated the breadth of Wilson's output, from early drawings in Rome to late paintings in the 1770s.
