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    Return to "Study of Figures for 'Ego fui in Arcadia'" is linked to these Documents 4 items
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    Wilson Online Reference
    Ford 1952
    Author
    Brinsley Ford
    Title/Description
    'Richard Wilson in Rome: II - The Claudean Landscapes'
    Publisher
    The Burlington Magazine
    Country
    London, UK
    Date of Publication
    November 1952
    Printed/Manuscript
    Secondary published
    More Information
    Vol. 94, no. 596, pp. 307-13. Ford assesses six landscapes painted while Wilson was in Rome from 1753 onwards: P49 Lake, Villa and Pine Trees: 'A Summer Evening'; P56 Rome from the Villa Madama; P57 Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum; P63 Diana and Actaeon; P64 Rome from the Ponte Molle; P69 Ego fui in Arcadia. He concludes that on their evidence 'from 1753 onwards Wilson developed in Rome a characteristic style which was based on Claudean principles of composition.'
    Full Text
    [Continuing his concluding paragraph:] 'It is paradoxical that the very few landscapes which can be attested by signature and date to have been painted in Italy should be [in the words of E.K. Waterhouse] "much lower in tone, and have far less of the Mediterranean sunshine about them than the later versions painted in England." If Wilson's work in Italy is to be judged solely by this group of Roman paintings then the charge that at this period he was little more than an imitator of Claude could hardly be refuted. But it was during these very years that Wilson was most active with his pencil. Countless drawings prove how closely he studied nature and how independent his vision could be when he had nobody but himself to please. It is to this aspect of his work, as much as to his emulation of the great French masters, that we must turn if we are to appreciate the foundations upon which he built his future achievement.'
    Updated by Compiler
    2019-07-31 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Paintings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Portrait of Thomas Hollis, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Harvard University Portrait Collection, Cambridge
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Rome from the Villa Madama, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Rome: St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Tate, London
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Ego fui in Arcadia (Shepherds in the Campagna), Private Collection, England
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Diana and Actaeon (Landscape with Figures bathing in a Pool), Private Collection, England
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Landscape with Banditti round a Tent, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Rome from the Ponte Molle, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)and later intervention, Lake, Villa and Pine Trees: 'A Summer Evening' (The Villa Medici Rome with imaginary Surroundings) , Buccleuch Collection, Boughton House
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Capriccio Landscape with Lake, Castle and Hills, Collection of Richard L. Feigen & Co
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) St Peter's and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Rome, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) Study of Figures for 'Ego fui in Arcadia', Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven
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