![]() Once the dead-colouring was dry it was oiled out before the second painting.įor the foreground Joseph Farington records that Wilson 'went over it a second time, heightening every part with colour and deepening the shadows, but still, brown, loose and flat, and left in a state for finishing: the half-tints laid in, without highlights.' In the third and final painting of the foreground Wilson altered the tints, adding the necessary sharpness to the different objects, before glazing them with rich warm tints, and finally adding further solid tints over this. The colour was applied to a thickness depending on the depth of tone required, allowing the light tone of the ground to show through more towards the horizon. Thin washes of colour were applied at this stage Prussian blue and grey-brown for the sky, and a mixture of red and blue pigments for the landscape. His landscape paintings were produced by first applying an underdrawing of brown paint, followed by ‘dead-colouring', a task which was given to the studio apprentices. Wilson decided to abandon portraiture in favour of landscape painting whilst in Italy. This is easily visible in the portraits of Richard Owen (NMW A 5005) and the Maid of Honour (NMW A 67). The final or third painting allowed final corrections to the glazing.Ī particular hallmark of his portraiture is the grey underpainting left exposed to form a mid-tone of the skin. The second painting, after the first was dry, consisted in heightening of the lights, glazing the darks and adding carmine to the lips and cheeks. The first colouring established the basics of the face using a shade tint for the darker tones and a light tint for the general flesh tone. Wilson painted skin tones in three stages. Wilson's loose but masterly handling of paint is visible in the costumes of his subjects, showing details of fastenings and other decorative features. Subjects are usually shown bust-length in an oval with a suitable background echoing the aspirations of the sitter. Wilson's initial portraits date from 1740-50 and reflect the taste of his day. Eventually his health deteriorated and he retired to Colomendy near Mold where he died in 1782. The Royal Academy, of which he had been a founder member in 1768, eventually appointed him as Librarian with a salary of £50 per annum. ![]() Gradually the market for this type of painting disappeared and his income dwindled. ![]() Over the next fifteen years he produced large numbers of Italian, English and Welsh landscapes repeating the more popular subjects many times over. On his return to London he hired several apprentices and paying pupils included Thomas Jones and Joseph Farington who both ended up adopting something of Wilson's studio practice. During this time he developed new skills as a landscape painter in the grand classical style following the examples of Poussin, Claude and Zuccarelli. In 1750 he left London for Rome where he remained until 1757. Following his apprenticeship in 1735 he began producing portraits of Welsh and English sitters. Richard Wilson was born and brought up in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire and moved to London in 1729 to train as a portrait painter under Thomas Wright.
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