BIB_ID
414666
Accession number
MA 1581.292
Creator
Beaumont, George Howland, Sir, 1753-1827.
Display Date
Place not identified, undated.
Credit line
Purchased from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 22.7 x 19.1 cm
Notes
The letter is unsigned and its author cannot be confirmed, but the handwriting does resemble other examples of Sir George Beaumont's hand. The letter also appears to be a draft, as it ends midway through a sentence and has several words crossed out.
The letter is undated, but based on its contents it may have been written after Richard Wilson's death in 1782.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall, and to other members of the Beaumont family.
The letter is undated, but based on its contents it may have been written after Richard Wilson's death in 1782.
This letter is from a large collection of letters written to Sir George Howland Beaumont (1753-1827) and Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont (1758-1829) of Coleorton Hall, and to other members of the Beaumont family.
Provenance
Purchased as a gift of the Fellows from Benjamin Ifor Evans, 1954.
Summary
Saying that he cannot supply particulars about Richard Wilson's character as an artist, but suggesting that the recipient apply to Joseph Farington for this information; recommending that the recipient procure a list of Wilson's major works and their current owners; discussing Wilson's career and talents; writing "For my own part I have no hesitation as far as my judgment goes, to place him decidedly at the head of the Landscape Painters of this country -- his sole rival is Gainsborough, & if it be allowed as I think it must, he had a finer & higher relish for colour, or in the technical term a better painters eye than Wilson, on the other hand, Wilson, was far his superior in elevation of thought & dignity of composition, both were poets, & to me the Bard of Grey, & his Elegy, are so descriptive of their different lines, that I should certainly have commissioned Wilson to paint a subject from the first & Gainsborough one from the latter"; analyzing Gainsborough's popularity; listing some of Wilson's faults; describing Wilson's coloring as "frequently sweet & airy, solemn & grand when the subject required it, & seldom or never out of harmony."
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