The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
N EWSLETTER Yale University
January 2014 Issue 38
RICHARD WILSON AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING The exhibition Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting is to be held at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, from 6 March to 1 June 2014, and at the National Museum Wales, Cardiff, from 5 July to 29 October 2014. Long known as the father of British landscape painting, Richard Wilson was, the exhibition contends, at the heart of a profound conceptual shift in European landscape art. With over 160 works, the exhibition and accompanying publication not only situate Wilson’s art at the beginning of a native tradition that leads to John Constable and J.M.W. Turner, but argues that in Rome during the 1750s Wilson was part of an international group of artists who reshaped European art. Rooted in the work of great seventeenth-century masters such as Claude Lorrain but responding to the early stirrings of neoclassicism, Wilson forged a highly original landscape vision that through the example of his own works and the tutelage of his pupils in Rome and later in London was to establish itself throughout northern Europe. In addition to a wide range of oil paintings and works on paper by Wilson, the exhibition includes works by Claude Lorrain, Gaspard Dughet, Anton Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Batoni, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Charles-Joseph Natoire, Claude-Joseph Vernet, Adolf Friedrich Harper, Johan Mandelberg, William Hodges, Thomas Jones, Joseph Wright, John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. The exhibition is co-curated by Martin Postle, Deputy Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Robin Simon, Visiting Professor of English, University College London and Editor of The British Art Journal. The exhibition catalogue, published by
Richard Wilson (1714–82), Vale o f Narni, c.1760. Oil on canvas, Brinsley Ford Collection
Yale University Press for the Yale Center for British Art, also contains contributions by Steffen Eggle, Oliver Fairclough, Jason Kelley, Ana Maria Suarez Huerta, Lars Kokkonen, Kate Lowry, Paul Spencer-Longhurst, Jonathan Yarker, Scott Wilcox and Rosie Ibbotson.
The Paul Mellon Centre Staff Director of Studies: Mark Hallett Deputy Director of Studies: Martin Po stle Assistant Director for Research: Sarah V icto ria T urner Assistant Director for Finance and Administration: Sarah Ruddick Librarian: Emma Floyd Archivist and Records Manager: C harlotte Brunskill Picture Research and Online Cataloguing: Maisoon Rehani Events Co-ordinator and Director’s Assistant: Ella Fleming Yale-in-London Coordinator: Nermin A bdulla Fellowships and Grants Manager: Mary Peskett Smith Editor Research Projects: G uilland Sutherland Administrative Assistant: Lyndsey G herardi Archives and Library Assistant: Jenny Hill Archives and Library Assistant: Frankie Drummond Senior Research Fellows, Special Projects: Hugh Belsey, Elizabeth Einberg, A lex Kidson, Eric Shanes, Paul Spencer-Longhurst Advisory Council: Iwona Blazwick, A lixe Bovey, David Peters C orbett, Penelope C urtis, Michael Hatt, Nigel Llewellyn, Richard Marks, A ndrew Moore, G avin Stamp, C hristine Stevenson, Shearer W est, A lison Y arrington Company Registered in England 983028 Registered Charity 313838
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