House of Pompey at Albano

1753–56

Not on view

Wilson began his career as a portraitist but turned exclusively to landscape during a trip to Italy in the 1750s. At that time, he set out to train himself as a landscapist by making on-the-spot sketches in the Italian countryside and compositional sketches in the studio. This delicately rendered townscape was no doubt made on the spot when he visited Albano, perhaps in 1754, and includes none of the artificial devices that characterize his studio works. The ruins in the city, situated in the Alban Hills, twelve miles southeast of Rome, are today recognized as ancient baths. In the eighteenth century, they were thought to belong to the palace of Pompeius Magnus (106-48 B.C.).

Artwork Details

Title: House of Pompey at Albano
Artist: Richard Wilson (British, Penegoes, Wales 1712/13–1782 Denbighshire, Wales)
Date: 1753–56
Medium: Black chalk touched with white chalk on gray paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 8 5/8 x 15 in. (21.9 x 38.1 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1906
Object Number: 06.1042.20
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Richard Wilson

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Lake Nemi and Genzano from the Terrace of the Capuchin Monastery, Richard Wilson British, Welsh, Oil on canvas — Lake Nemi and Genzano from the Terrace of the Capuchin Monastery
Richard Wilson
ca. 1756–57

Welsh Triple Harp, Wood, various materials, British (Welsh) — Welsh Triple Harp
British (Welsh)
18th century (?)

Head of a Young Woman, Albrecht Dürer German, Black chalk highlighted with white chalk (abraded) on green prepared paper. — Head of a Young Woman
Albrecht Dürer
1522

View of the Colosseum, Richard Wilson British, Welsh, Black chalk heightened with white chalk on gray paper; sheet laid down on pink paper mount with double border in brown ink — View of the Colosseum
Richard Wilson
1751–56

Welsh Triple Harp, John Richards British, Welsh, Wood, various materials., British (Welsh) — Welsh Triple Harp
John Richards
ca. 1750

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