RICHARD WILSON RA (1713 - 1782) Portrait of Major Richard C...

Hammer

£24,000

RICHARD WILSON RA (1713 - 1782)
Portrait of Major Richard Callis, c. 1741
The sitter is dressed in the uniform of the First - or King's - Dragoon Guards.
Oil on Canvas
76.2 x 63.5 cm (30" x 25")

Richard Wilson began his career as a portraitist. Born at Pengoes in Wales and trained in London under Thomas Wright (1728-37), Wilson had a respectable practice by 1744, but faced stern competition from other established London masters and decided to travel to Italy to seek new patronage. He arrived in Venice in 1750 and later moved to Rome, where he resolved to start anew as a landscape artist, for which he is most renowned. Works such as the Portrait of Mayor Richard Callis demonstrate that Wilson's talent in portraiture is not to be underestimated. In particular the broad and clear use of colour and the preference for strokes of white in pastel - here employed in the wig - have parallels in the landscapes where the white pigments are similarly impastoed in the clouds.

In the 20th century, the portrait was acquired by The Hon. Mrs. Nellie Ionides, the fourth daughter of Sir Marcus Samuel Viscount Bearsted, whose painting collection forms the Bearsted Collection at Upton House. Some of Mrs. Ionides' paintings are still in family ownership, others in galleries including the Victoria and Albert Museum.

PROVENANCE:
The Collection of Mr and Mrs Basil Ionides, Buxted Park, Sussex: By family descent to 2004 when acquired by current owner at Chomè Fine Art, Bath.