Richard Wilson (painter)

Lake Avernus I, by Richard Wilson, c. 1765

Richard Wilson (1 August 1714 – 15 May 1782) was a Welsh landscape painter, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768.

Life

The son of a clergyman, Wilson was born in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire. In 1729 he went to London where he began as a portrait painter. From 1750 to 1757 he was in Italy and adopted landscape on the advice of Francesco Zuccarelli. Painting in Italy and afterwards in England, he was the first major British painter to primarily concentrate on landscape. He composed well, but saw and rendered only the general effects of nature thereby creating a personal, ideal style influenced by Claude Lorrain and the Dutch landscape tradition. According to John Ruskin, he "paints in a manly way, and occasionally reaches exquisite tones of colour." His landscapes were acknowledged as an influence by Constable and Turner. Wilson died in Colomendy, Denbighshire.

Extant works include:

Landscapes

Caernarfon Castle
Dolbadarn Castle
Dover Castle
Lake Avernus with a Sarcophagus
Lydford Waterfall, Tavistock
River at Penegoes
The Garden of the Villa Madama, Rome
Valley of the Mawddach with Cader Idris
View at Tivoli
View in Windsor Great Park
Cilgerran Castle
Classical Landscape, Strada Nomentana
Conway Castle
Dolgellau Bridge
Italian Scene with an arch
Acqua Acetosa, on the Tiber
Coast Scene near Naples
The Old Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury
Rome from the Ponte Molle (1754)
Dinas Bran Castle, near Llangollen (1770 c.)
Pembroke Town and Castle (1774)
Llyn-y-Cau,Cader Idris (1774?)

Portraits

Portrait of a Lady: Maid of Honour
Self-portrait
Boulter Tomlinson (1749)
Sir Edward Lloyd (1750)

Other

Ceyx and Alcyone (1768)

See also: English school of painting

External links

*http://www.newi.ac.uk/morrisge/wilson.htm -- "Richard Wilson, R.A. 1713-1782 Welsh landscape painter"
*Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle (c.1765)