A Church at Ariccia
Richard Wilson (Penegoes 1714 - Mold 1782)
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
circa 1754
Materials
Black chalk drawing and stump with white highlights over graphite on paper
Measurements
310 x 440 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 267112
Summary
Black chalk drawing and stump with white highlights over graphite on paper, A Church at Ariccia by Richard Wilson, RA (Penegoes 1714 – Mold 1782), signed lower right: RW, circa 1754 (undated). In the foreground a man on horseback is led out of a dark wood by another man with a staff. The rough road stretches back towards a Baroque pedimented church in the distance. Three robed figures are coming out of the church, the foremost of whom gives alms to a seated woman, begging. See Ford 1951, p.64, no. 84 and Richard Wilson Online, no. D282. This is probably a studio drawing after a sketch made in Italy. Related paintings include those at Tate (N01097) and Wilton House (the Earl of Pembroke) (90). Ariccia lies in the region of the Campagna south-east of Rome near Lake Albano. The church has not been identified and does not look like Santa Maria dell'Assunzione. It is possibly the sanctuary of Madonna di Galloro. William Lock of Norbury Park, Surrey, the original owner of the drawing, had accompanied Wilson on his journey from Venice to Rome in 1751 and is said to have been the person responsible for encouraging Wilson to take up landscape painting (he had started out as a portraitist).
Provenance
Collection of William Lock (1732 - 1810) of Norbury Park, Surrey; William Esdaile (1758-1837); Captain R. Ford; Mrs Richard Ford; Sotheby's 9 March 1947 (89), bought Brinsley Ford (1908 -1999); by descent to Augustine Ford. Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from Augustine Ford and allocated to the National Trust for Osterley, 2023.
Makers and roles
Richard Wilson (Penegoes 1714 - Mold 1782), artist
References
Garnett 2015: Oliver Garnett, At Home with Art Treasures from the Ford Collection at Basildon Park, National Trust, 2015, p. 38 Ford 1951: Brinsley Ford, The Drawings of Richard Wilson, London 1951, p. 64, no. 84.