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    The River Dee near Eaton Hall

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    The River Dee near Eaton Hall
    The River Dee near Eaton Hall
    The River Dee near Eaton Hall
    Private Collection / Photograph by Matthew Hollow
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    Artist
    Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
    Title
    The River Dee near Eaton Hall
    Date
    Undated
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    Metric: 63.8 x 76 cm
    Imperial: 25 1/8 x 29 15/16 in.
    Collection
    Private Collection, Wales
    Wilson Online Reference
    P86G
    Description
    The view is near Eaton Hall, Cheshire, perhaps at the Crook of Dee, near the Aldford Road. The river extends from the left foreground to the centre middle distance and is bordered on both sides by trees and bushes. At a bend in the middle distance, there is a cottage and in a field to the left, cows are grazing. A tree in the right foreground extends its branches halfway across the picture. Below it a youth is showing a semi-clad reclining girl an eel he has just caught. Distant hills are seen on the left and the sky is rosy with the sunset. The direction seems to be downstream, towards the north-west, Chester and Wales The mood is one of evening.
    Provenance
    Ronald Seacombe, West Kingsdown, Kent; Richard Knight, Fine Paintings, 8 Blackheath Rise, London S.E.13, 1973; O. Petterson, Lee Green, London S.E.12, 1973; Private Collection, Sussex; Tony Roberts, Cider House Galleries, Bletchingley, Surrey; Nicholsons Auctions, The Auction Rooms, Midhurst Road, Fernhurst, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 3HA, 9 March 2016 (289), bt present owner
    Signature/inscription
    Unsigned; no inscription
    Verso inscriptions
    [1] Central vertical stretcher bar, old chalk or paint: 1213
    [2] Right vertical stretcher bar, lower end, pencil: 300
    [3] Stamp on lining reverse of J.R. Taylor.
    Labels
    [1] Upper centre verso: Richard Knight | FINE PAINTINGS | 8 Blackheath Rise | London SE13 | Tel 01-852 9541
    Subject
    The artist's home territory on the Welsh-English border provides the backdrop to an evening courtship scene, its gently amorous mood reflected by the two swans in the river, at the lower left. The composition appears to be the first depiction of 'public' British scenery, as opposed to private estates, executed after Wilson's return from Italy. Writers from Elizabethan times, including Spenser and Milton, referred to an ancient tradition ascribing divine qualities to the Dee, prophetic for the fortunes of England and Wales, lying either side of it. Eaton Hall was the ancestral seat of Sir Richard, later 1st Earl Grosvenor and is currently that of his descendant, the 7th Duke of Westminster.
    Related Drawings
    D354 The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton Hall Cheshire, Art Institute of Chicago, Leonora Hall Gurley Collection
    Related Prints
    E25 Thomas Morris after Wilson, The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton, Cheshire, The British Museum and other impressions
    E71/1 John Young after Wilson, View on the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, The British Museum
    Related Paintings
    P111 The Valley of the Dee with Chester in the Distance, The National Gallery, London
    Critical commentary
    Of the surviving versions of this subject the present one is closest to P86C (Tyntesfield, National Trust) in composition and dimensions. The focus is a scene of gentle dalliance between the man and woman in the foreground, whose meaning is intensified by the symbolism of the eel and the exposed back of the woman.
    More Information
    The firm of Joseph Robert Taylor was active as 'picture restorers, carvers and gilders' at 15 Brazennose St, Manchester from 1847-1889 (J. Simon ed., British Picture Restorers, 1600-1950, NPG website - T)
    Condition/Conservation
    Kate Lowry has noted: The work was viewed in its frame, but off display. Painting is fitted in a Maratta style gilt carved frame, unglazed and not backed. The frame moulding is 135 mm wide which is quite heavy for a painting of this size. Seen from the reverse the left hand rebate has clearly been enlarged at some point in its history to accommodate a bigger painting than the one it contains at present. This is therefore not thought to be an original frame. The frame bears a label of Richard Knight top centre at reverse. The frame finish also suggests it has been regilded relatively recently.
    The painting has a simple weave linen canvas support which has been glue relined by the Manchester picture restorer J.R. Taylor, whose stamp appears on the lining reverse. He was active at the address in Brazennose Street from c.1840-85. The original turnovers were removed at the time of lining and the painting is now attached to the stretcher through the lining turnovers. It was not possible to examine these turnovers closely as the painting was viewed in the frame, but attachment appears to be good and the lining is sound. The lining process has severely flattened any impasto in the painting and made the original canvas weave more prominent at the picture surface. The stretcher is not original but dates from the relining. It has seven members with square mortice joints and provision for keying out. All keys present.
    The painting has a pale grey ground which can be seen in various places where the paint is thin, especially at upper left sky. The treatment of the foliage masses at upper right and lower left are typical of Wilson's style, as is the painting of the large tree branches at upper right, where slight pentimenti are visible as the artist corrected their outlines. There are no areas of reserve left for the foliage against the sky, but this is a feature more common in Wilson's larger paintings. The foreground vegetation and some of the smaller trees and their foliage down the left side of the painting are more fussily painted than is normal in his work. Ultra-violet light shows that the painting has been cleaned, revarnished and retouched quite conservatively. Some older resin varnish residues remain in the dark foreground tones. There is a scattering of tiny retouches throughout the sky, presumably to reduce the worn appearance, and more extensive retouches below the line of the cloud edge to the left and right of the clump of trees at centre right. The head of the standing figure is quite strongly retouched around his hat and mouth. All retouches are on top of the present varnish which appears to be a synthetic resin coating. No major damages to the support or paint film are visible under UV or in normal light.
    Updated by Compiler
    2022-01-18 00:00:00

    Work of Art

    Drawings

    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782), The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton Hall, Cheshire, Art Institute of Chicago, Leonora Hall Gurley Collection

    Prints

    • Thomas Morris after Wilson, The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton, Cheshire, The British Museum
    • Thomas Morris after Wilson, The Banks of the River Dee near Eaton, Cheshire, Royal Academy of Arts, London
    • John Young after Wilson, View on the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, The British Museum

    Versions

    • Imitator of Wilson, The River Dee near Eaton Hall (A View on the River Dee with Anglers), The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth / Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The River Dee near Eaton Hall, Petworth House, National Trust
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The River Dee near Eaton Hall, The Courtauld Gallery, London
    • Ascribed to Wilson, The River Dee near Eaton Hall, Private Collection, North America
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The River Dee near Eaton Hall, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Birmingham
    • Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782) The River Dee near Eaton Hall (View of the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, Cheshire), Tyntesfield, National Trust

    Paintings

    • The Valley of the Dee with Chester in the Distance, The National Gallery, London

    Biographies

    • Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor (1731-1802)
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