Richard Wilson, 1713/4–1782, British, active in Italy (1750–56)
Title:
Rome from the Villa Madama
Date:
1753
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
37 9/16 x 52 1/4 inches (95.4 x 132.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed and dated on classical block lower center: "RW [monogram, R reversed] | 1753"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.82
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
sculpture | Grand Tour | villa | river | cityscape | landscape | people | mountains
Associated Places:
Villa Madama | Italy | Lazio | Roma | Mario, Monte | Tiber
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29)An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)Richard Wilson - The Landscape of Reaction (Tate Britain, 1982-11-03 - 1983-01-02)Richard Wilson - The Landscape of Reaction (National Museum Wales, 1983-01-29 - 1983-03-20)Richard Wilson - The Landscape of Reaction (Yale Center for British Art, 1983-04-20 - 1983-06-19)Classic Ground - British Artists and the Landscape of Italy, 1740-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-07-29 - 1981-09-20)British Painting and the European Continent (Haus der Kunst Munich, 1979-11-20 - 1980-01-27)
Publications:
Art Treasures Exhibition (Manchester, England), Catalogue of the art treasures of the United kingdom., Bradbury and Evans, London, 1857, p. 78, no. 29, N5056 M35 M25 1857 (YCBA)Katharine Baetjer, Glorious nature, British landscape painting, 1750-1850 , Zwemmer publisher, London, 1993, p. 100, ND1354.4 B34 1993 (YCBA)Timothy J. Barringer, Picturesque and sublime : Thomas Cole's trans-Atlantic inheritance, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2018, p. 15, fig. 9, NJ18 .C67 B37 2018 (YCBA)John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 250, no. 19, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 288-9, pl. VII, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)Julius Bryant, Kenwood, paintings in the Iveagh Bequest, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2003, p. 176, fig. 2, ND454 B79 2003 + (YCBA)Duncan Bull, Classic ground : British artists and the landscape of Italy, 1740-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1981, pp. 1-4, 11, 19, 44-5, no. 53, pl. III, ND1354.4 B85 (YCBA)Catalogue of an exhibition of pictures by Richard Wilson and his circle : organized by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, January, 1949, The Tate Gallery, London, , Tate Britain, London, 1949, p. 16, no. 16, NJ18 W72 T37 (YCBA)Catalogue of pictures by Richard Wilson and his circle, November 17-January 9 1948-9 , City Museum & Art Gallery Birmingham, Birmingham, 1948, p. 14, no. 17, V 2449 (YCBA)W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1953, pp. 33,71,80, 119, 160, 218-19., note . 107a, pl. 107a, NJ18 W72 C55 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, A Selective Promenade, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 288-9, pl. VII, N1 A54 + (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 252-53, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Sir Brinsley Ford, Richard Wilson in Rome, II, Burlington Magazine, vol. 94, no. 596, November, 1952, pp. 311-2, fig. 4, N1 B87 + (YCBA) Also Available Online (JSTOR)Sir Brinsley Ford, The Dartmouth Collection of Drawings by Richard Wilson, Burlington Magazine, vol. 90,no.549, December, 1948, pp. 337-45, N1 B87 + (YCBA)John Gage, Zwei Jahrhunderte englische Malerei, britische Kunst und Europa 1680 bis 1880 : [Ausstellung] Haus der Kunst Mèunchen, 21. November 1979 bis 27. Januar 1980: [Katalog] , Ausstellungsleitung Haus der Kunst Mèunchen, Mèunchen, 1979, p. 191, no. 91, pl. 33 & fig. 91, ND466 Z85 (YCBA)Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 76, ND466 G67 (YCBA)Luke Herrmann, [ Exhibition Reviews ] Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting, YCBA, New Haven, 6 March - 1 June National Museum Wales / Amueddfa Cymru, Cardiff 5 July - 26 October , British Art Journal, Vol. 15, Autumn 2014, p. 120, N6761 B74 OVERSIZE (YCBA)John Ingamells, A dictionary of British and Irish travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, compiled from the Brinsley Ford archive , Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997, p. 1008, , DG424 D53 1997 (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 74-75, no. 24, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Henry A. Minton, The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo, the representation of architecture , Thames and Hudson, London, 1994, no. 219, NA1115 R397X 1994 OVERSIZE (HAAS)Edmund Ollier, The English Claude, Magazine of Art, vol. 5, January 1882, p. 355, N1 M34 + (YCBA) Available online in British Periodicals Database.Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Martin Postle, Richard Wilson and the transformation of European landscape painting, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2014, pp.8, 79, 193, 194-95, 196, 248, 249, Cat. No. 60, fig. 8, NJ18.W72 R53 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Skira editore, Hogarth Reynolds Turner : British painting and the rise of modernity, Rome, 2014, p.92, fig. 2, ND466 .H65 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA)David H. Solkin, Richard Wilson, the landscape of reaction, Tate Publishing, London, 1982, pp. 14-15, 47, 74, 138 fn 49, 184-85, no. 67, no. 67, NJ18 W72 S65 + (YCBA)Spencer-Longhurst, Paul, with Kate Lowry and David Solkin, Richard Wilson Online : A Digital Catalogue Raisonne, , The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 2014, no. P56, http://www.richardwilsononline.ac.uk/index.php?WINID=1582051040261David Stacey, [ Exhibition Reviews ] And another view of the Richard Wilson exhibition ..., British Art Journal, vol. 15, Autumn 2014, p. 122, N6761 B74 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Visits to Private Galleries of the British School - The Collection of Hugh Munro, Esq., Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, Art Journal, vol. 3:29, May 1857, p. 134, S2166 (SML Film) Available online in British Periodicals database.Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 22, N590.2 A82 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
The Welsh painter Richard Wilson traveled to Italy in 1751 and over the course of the next five years became one of the leading landscape painters in Rome. This is one of two views of Rome commissioned from Wilson by William Legge, second Earl of Dartmouth, during his Grand Tour in 1752–53. The city is seen from the slopes of Monte Mario, to the northwest, traditionally the first view of the city seen by pilgrims arriving from the north. To the right, in shadow, is the loggia of the Villa Madama, built by Pope Clement VII from designs by Raphael. The influence of the seventeenth-century master of landscape Claude Lorrain is much in evidence in the eloquent massing of forms and the subtle movement from areas of rich shadow into a luminous distance. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016