Richard Wilson, 1713/4–1782, British, active in Italy (1750–56)
Title:
Caernarfon Castle
Date:
ca. 1745
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
25 1/2 x 41 5/16 inches (64.8 x 104.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.174
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
landscape | fortress | sailboats | houses | costume | ruins | rowboats | castle | men | artist | hills | drawing | bay (body of water) | smoke
Associated Places:
Caernarfon | Caernarfon Bay | Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire | United Kingdom | Caernarfon Castle | Menai Strait | Cymru | Wales
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Art in Focus : The British Castle - A Symbol in Stone (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-04-07 - 2017-08-06)Art in Focus : Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)Fairest Isle - The Appreciation of British Scenery 1750-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1989-04-12 - 1989-06-25)Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10-20 - 1983-02-27)The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18)
Publications:
Caernarvon Castle, Scottish Art Review, vol. 11, 1968, p. 4, J10 Sc87 (SML)Christie's sale catalogue : Old pictures, the property of a gentleman; also pictures and drawings from numerous private collections and different sources : 3 June 1901, Christie's, June 3, 1901, p. 22, lot 145, Fiche B51 (YCBA)W. G. Constable, Richard Wilson, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1953, pp. 93-94,109,, pl. 32a, NJ18 W72 C55 (YCBA)Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp, 250, 251, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Megan Cullen, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850 : [exhibition] label copy. Yale Center for British Art, April 12-June 25, 1989., , Yale Center for British Art, [New Haven, 1989, p. 42, no. 95, ND1354.4 F351 1989 (YCBA)Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p.76, ND466 G67 (YCBA)Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature : British Landscape, 1780-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1982, p.141, no. III.1, pl. 116, ND1354.4 H38 (YCBA)Luke Herrmann, British landscape painting of the eighteenth century., Faber & Faber, London, 1973, p. 57, pl. 49b, ND1354.4 H47 1973 + (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 68, no. 21, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Engelse landschapschilders van Gainsborough tot Turner, [Deze tentoonstelling werd samengesteld uit schilderijen in Britse verzamelingen. Zij werd georganiseerd door de British Council in samenwerking met het Museum Boymans] , Rotterdam, 1955, no. 69, ND1354 M87 (YCBA)Robert Michael Neuman, Baroque and Rococo art and architecture, Pearson, Boston, 2013, pp. 391-92, fig. 14.13, N6415.B3 N48 2013 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 34, 78, no. 21, fig. 21, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA)Martin Postle, Richard Wilson and the transformation of European landscape painting, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2014, pp. 189-90, NJ18.W72 R53 2014 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Graham Reynolds, Masterpieces in Mourning, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, Issue no. 4158, December 10, 1982, p.1364, Film S748 (SML) Also Available Online in TLS Historical ArchiveDuncan Robinson, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1989, p. 12, no. 95, ND1354.4 F35 (YCBA)David H. Solkin, Exhibition Catalogue Review, Apollo, vol. 251,no. 117, January 1983, pp. 39-45, N1 A54 + (YCBA)David H. Solkin, Richard Wilson, the landscape of reaction, Tate Publishing, London, 1982, pp. 18, 28, 148, no. 7, col. pl. 2, no. 7, NJ18 W72 S65 + (YCBA)Spencer-Longhurst, Paul, with Kate Lowry and David Solkin, Richard Wilson Online : A Digital Catalogue Raisonne, , The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 2014, no. P12A, http://www.richardwilsononline.ac.uk/index.php?WINID=1582051040261Tate Gallery, London [Exhibit], Magazine Antiques, vol. 122, December 1982, p. 1216, NK1125 A3 OVERSIZE (HAAS)The British Castle : A Symbol in Stone, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2017, p. 28, cat. 23, V2722 (YCBA)The Treasure houses of Britain, five hundred years of private patronage and art collecting. , National Gallery of Art, [Washington, D.C., 1985, o. 387, no. 318, N5245 T74 1985 + (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Wales, New Haven, 2014, p. 20, V2519 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Caernarfon Castle, completed in 1745, was one of Wilson’s first landscapes, painted before he departed for Italy in 1750. Here, the castle, built by the English king Edward I, is noble in its centered position behind the sweeping body of water. Although Caernarfon in the eighteenth century was a thriving town with a busy port, Wilson’s view depicts the castle as a ruin in a tranquil backwater. As a Welsh- born intellectual, Wilson may have been demonstrating the presence of the ancient past in contemporary Wales and its suitability for representation by artists such as those working in the foreground. Gallery label for Art in Focus: Wales (Yale Center for British Art, 2014-04-04 - 2014-08-10)