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Richard Wilson , Welsh, 1713-1782

Title

The Temple of the Sibyl, Tivoli

Date1752

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

50 x 66 cm

Signedon verso, lower left: R: Wilson pinxt: 1752. No: 2

Credit LineMilltown Gift, 1902

Object numberNGI.747

DescriptionA visit to Tivoli, northeast of Rome, was deemed essential for Grand Tourists in search of antiquities and for artists seeking dramatic views. One of the most recorded sites was the ruined temple dramatically placed on an outcrop near the town, then identified as that of the Sibyl. Built in the first century BC, eighteen fluted Corinthian columns survive around a circular cella. It was converted into a church in the Middle Ages. Wilson had only taken up landscape painting on his arrival in Rome in 1752, and he painted this and a pendant view of Tivoli (NGI.746) that same year for Joseph Henry of Straffan, County Kildare. The scene is illuminated with sunlight, and the peasant figures on a knoll enhance the sense of idyll. The artist teasingly includes two men carrying away an easel and canvas to suggest it was all painted there. While the freedom of painting in certain areas has suggested that he was working partly out of doors, the balanced composition is typical of eighteenth-century studio practice. Wilson was to repeat this subject on a number of occasions.

March 2016
ProvenanceSold by artist to Joseph Henry; Milltown Gift, 1902Exhibition HistoryCentenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964

Richard Wilson: The Landscape of Reaction, Tate Gallery, London, 3 November 1982 - 2 January 1983; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 29 January - 20 March 1983; Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 20 April - 19 June 1983

Grand Tour: The Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, Tate Gallery, London, 10 October 1996 - 1 January 1997; Palazzo delle Exposizioni, Rome, 5 February - 7 April 1997

Paysages d'Italie, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 3 April - 9 July 2001; Palazzo Te, Mantua, 3 September - 16 December 2001

Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Art, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 6 March - 1 June 2014; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, 5 July - 29 October 2014

Label TextA visit to Tivoli, northeast of Rome, was deemed essential for Grand Tourists in search of antiquities, and artists seeking dramatic views. One of the most recorded sites was the ruined temple of the Sibyl, located on an outcrop over the valley. Built in the first century bc, eighteen fluted Corinthian columns survive around a circular cella. Wilson took up landscape painting on his arrival in Rome, in 1752, and depicted this view several times. The artist teasingly included two men carrying away an easel and canvas to suggest it was all painted there.