Lot 192: STUDIO OF RICHARD WILSON, R.A.

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY PENEGOES, POWYS 1713/14 - 1782 COLOMENDY, CLWYD SOLITUDE oil on canvas 101.5 by 127 cm.; 40 by 50 in.

With Anthony Mould, London, circa 1975; From whom acquired by the present owner.

The present painting is a good studio version of one of the artist's most important early works, the prime version of which is a picture that was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1762 (no. 132, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery & Museum, Swansea). The subject was engraved by Woollett and Ellis and published in 1778 with a dedication to Sir George Beaumont, together with lines from James Thomson's poem The Seasons (Summer, II.516-524). As David Solkin has pointed out, the composition of the picture, and the theme of Solitude, was designed to appeal to contemporary aristocratic ideals, in particular the idea of the rural gentleman as the virtuous hermit, and the notion of rural retirement as a moral activity. We are meant to read a lesson from the juxtaposition between the monks and the ruined statue of a lion, which created a dialogue between the harmony of contemplative Christianity and the destruction of violence and aggression.1 A number of versions of the composition are recorded, of varying quality, and with confused provenance (see W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson, London 1953, p. 169, under nos. 28a, b, 29a). 1. See D. H. Solkin, Richard Wilson, The Landscape of Reaction, London 1982, chapter III & p. 213, no. 101.