A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall)

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A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall)
A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall)
A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall)
Courtesy of the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
A View on the River Po near Ferrara (Figures by a Waterfall)
Date
c.1776
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: Circular 24.1 cm diameter
Imperial: Circular 9 1/2 in. diameter
Accession Number
P0809
Wilson Online Reference
P197A
Provenance
Col. R.H.R. Brocklebank; bequeathed by Col. Brocklebank to Magdalen College 1965
Signature/inscription
Unsigned, undated, no inscription recto
Techniques and materials
The shadow of the white house (upper left) is painted uncharacteristically. The impasto is rather dry and patchy throughout. The log in the foreground and the tree to the left of the figures are two-dimensional. Much of the foliage is over-generalised.
Verso inscriptions
[1] Inscribed on the crossbar of the stretcher: Richard Wilson purchased at Mrs Cartwright's sale Bewdley [?] | in whose possession it had been 40 years.
Subject
W.G. Constable noted that the locality of the view is uncertain. If the river is the Po, the surrounding country is quite unlike that near Ferrara or along the greater part of the Po valley. There is no evidence that Wilson ever went to Turin or nearer the source of the river, where there are hills.
Versions
See 'Links' tab
Critical commentary
At least six painted versions are known, plus two drawings. The titles of all the versions derive from the inscription on the back of P197 (Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford). They seem to be based on the composition of A Waterfall by Gaspard Dughet, then owned by the dealer and collector Dr Robert Bragge (1700-1777), engraved by Lois Granville (fl. 1741-1757) in reverse and published by Knapton in 1741. P197A and other versions are examples of only three authentic painted roundel compositions by Wilson and as Anne French has noted, suggest that he had a particular prototype in mind. (The others are the larger P18 & P19 presented to the Foundling Hospital in 1746). While in Italy, however, he made a few smaller circular drawings, e.g. D242 Pastoral Landscape with Tower, Rijkmuseum Amsterdam.
Bibliography
A. French, Gaspard Dughet called Gaspard Poussin 1615-75, exh. cat., Kenwood, London, 1980, pp. 88-89 (73); Solkin 1981, p. 414, n. 21.