View of the Colosseum

Richard Wilson British, Welsh

Not on view

Wilson traveled to Italy in 1750 to seek portrait commissions from British aristocrats on the Grand Tour but soon turned exclusively to landscape. This delicate sketch shows part of the Roman Colosseum, an ancient amphitheater built in 72-80CE, with the ruins of the Baths of Titus in the background. The tentative nature of the lines and the pentimenti, for example in the arcades of the Colosseum, suggest that this view was taken on the spot.

View of the Colosseum, Richard Wilson (British, Penegoes, Wales 1712/13–1782 Denbighshire, Wales), Black chalk heightened with white chalk on gray paper; sheet laid down on pink paper mount with double border in brown ink

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