Richard Wilson
Villa Borghesi (The Villa Borghese, Rome)

ArtistWelsh, 1713/14–1782, active England
CultureWelsh
Titles
  • Villa Borghesi (The Villa Borghese, Rome)
Date1754
Place depictedRome, Italy
MediumBlack chalk with white chalk on gray blue laid paper; laid down on the artist's original mount of laid paper with lilac wash laid paper border
DimensionsSheet: 11 1/8 × 16 5/8 in. (28.3 × 42.2 cm)
Mat: 14 × 19 1/2 in. (35.6 × 49.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of Jonny Yarker, Curt DiCamillo, and Scott Wilcox
Object number2019.288
Non exposé

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Special Collections
ProvenanceCommissioned by William Legge, the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth (1731–1801) (as one of a series of twenty “views of the environs of Rome”); by descent to William Legge, 7th Earl of Dartmouth (1881–1958) at Patshull House, Woverhampton, until 1954; Christie’s, London, Pictures by Old Masters, January 29, 1954, lot 4 (as The Property of the Earl of Dartmouth); [Thomas Agnew & Sons, London]; purchased by Derek Lockett (d. 1993), Clonterbrook House, Cheshire; [his sale, Sotheby’s, London, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Drawings and Watercolours, March 15, 1990, lot 66 (as The Property of a Gentleman)]; Purchased by Professor Ian Craft (1937–2019), 1990-2010; [his sale, Sotheby’s, London, An Exceptional Eye: A Private British Collection, July 14, 2010, lot 57 (as The Villa Borghese, Rome, The Property of a Gentleman)]; Purchased by private collection, Canada, 2010–2018; [Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker, London, 2018–2019]; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Exhibition History"Richard Wilson and His Circle," City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom, November 17, 1948–January 9, 1949; Tate Gallery, London.

"British Artists in Europe," Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, January 11–February 17, 1973.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto, on artist's original mount: Initialed and dated in black ink, bottom left corner: R.W.f. Romae 1754.
Recto, on artist's original mount: Inscribed in brown ink on a white laid paper label, center bottom edge: Villa / Borghesi.
Recto, on artist's original mount: Numbered in black chalk, bottom right corner: No. 2
Watermark, center: [fleur-de-lis encircled in an oval] (Reference Haewood #1609 / Pl. 220 / Bologna 1620 or after)
View this object in The Stuart Collection

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