View on the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, Cheshire
Richard Wilson (Penegoes 1714 - Mold 1782)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1760 (monogrammed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
648 x 838 mm (25 ½ x 33 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486256
Caption
Wilson had a good classical education, and the Italian countryside, together with the work of Poussin, Dughet and Claude inspired him to create idyllic landscapes. He was in Rome 1752-57, but also visited Naples where he studied the classical sites. Whilst there, he made numerous drawings which he was to use on his return to England. A bill made out by ‘Wm.Dormer’ to George, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751–1837) for five paintings (£260), dated 15 November 1802, included a ‘Landscape by Wilson’, which may be one of the pictures by Wilson at Petworth today. The Norwich framer’s label – seemingly unique at Petworth – suggests that this picture was acquired from a Norfolk collection.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, View on the River Dee, near Eaton Hall, Cheshire by Richard Wilson RA (Penegoes 1714 – Mold 1782), signed with monogram: RW 1760. A river scene with a stream bending from the left foreground to the right and then to the left centre mid-distance. On the bank, in the right corner, two figures are seated beneath a tree with, on the right bank centre, a red brick house. In the centre and left distance are meadows, bounded by low hills and in the centre, mid-distance, a woman in a red petticoat on the far bank. The prime original, painted for Sir Richard Grosvenor (1731 -1802), the owner of the nearby Eaton estate, without figures, is now at the Barber Institute, Birmingham.
Provenance
A bill made out by ‘Wm. [William] Dormer’ to George, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751–1837) for five paintings (£260), dated 15 November 1802, included a ‘Landscape by Wilson’, which may be one of the pictures by Wilson at Petworth: (1) View on the Arno, PET/P/113; (2) Hermitage, PET/P/625*; (3) River scene with a lime kiln, PET/P/654. The Norwich framer’s label – seemingly unique at Petworth – suggests that this picture was acquired from a Norfolk collection; 3rd Earl of Egremont, probably before 1814; in Henry Wyndham Phillips Catalogue of the Pictures in Petworth House, 1835; thence by descent, lent to National Trust by HM Treasury, 1957
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: R.W. (monogram, R reversed) 1760 Verso: Stretcher with the blind-stamp of: I PEEL / LINER; inscribed in white chalk: 127; but in pencil: 360, and: Church Room / over DiRm [?] Door; paper label inscribed: WO 11604 7 Verso: Printed label of: Jeremiah & Wm. Freeman, CARVERS, GILDERS, & LOOKING-GLASS MANUFACTURERS / WHOLESALE & RETAIL / NO.2 LONDON [ROAD], NORWICH… [followed by details of what supplied and performed]. Inscribed in bold white paint: 360. Typed label: To Royal Society of Arts, Adelphi, W.C.2. / Richard Wilson 360 River / Landscape / From Petworth House, / Petworth, Sussex.
Makers and roles
Richard Wilson (Penegoes 1714 - Mold 1782), publisher
References
Constable 1953 W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson, 1953, p.174, pl. 34b