Richard Wilson, 1713/4–1782, British, active in Italy (1750–56)William Hodges, 1744–1797, British
Title:
Italian sketchbook
Date:
1754
Materials & Techniques:
Graphite with white and black chalk on medium, rough, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 11 1/8 x 8 1/4 inches (28.3 x 21 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.359
Gallery Label:
For the British artist studying in Italy, the sketchbook was a crucial tool. Three on "classic ground" the act of drawing focused the attention and aided the understanding. Back in Britain the sketchbook provided not only a record of the art and landscape encountered but also a repertoire of poses, figural groupings, and compositional ideas from the ancients and the masters of the Renaissance and Baroque or of richly evocative landscape elements that could be incorporated into their own art. Richard Wilson's sketchbook of 1754 is the second of two extant sketchbooks from his years in Italy. The earlier sketchbook (Victoria and Albert Museum), dated 1752 includes both quick studies from nature and imaginary landscape compositions of his own invention. Such landscape capriccios are absent from the later sketchbook, which is largely devoted to sensitive and more highly finished studies in chalk of antique sculpture, copses and gnarled trees, and recognizable views of Rome and Campagna, such as the drawing of Tivoli shown here. The falls at Tivoli, with the circular temple known as the Temple of the Sybil perched above was one of the most popular motifs for foreign landscape artists in Italy. Gallery label for The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05)
