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WILSON, RICHARD, R.A. 



WILSON, RICHARD, R.A. 



752 



expounded canons of taste, especially in poetry, deeper than those of 

 Jeffrey, and vindicated against that critic and bis disciples the poetic 

 claims of Wordsworth and the writers associated with him. He wrote, 

 either as lectures or as articles, subtle philosophical disquisitions, not 

 very connected or systematic perhaps, but gleaming with brilliant 

 ideas, and tinged throughout with that rich and highly-coloured mode 

 of metaphysics which Coleridge was diffusing through England. 

 Lastly, careless of the formality conventionally identified with the 

 gown of a Scotch professor, and that the gown of a professor of 

 moral philosophy, he wrote papers for the magazine in which he was 

 seen relapsing ideally into his character as an untrammelled human 

 being, a bruiser at country-fairs, a sportsman on Scottish hills and 

 rivers, a boon-companion among bacchanalians, commenting on men 

 and manners, on life and literature, from the point of view of an 

 inspired king of the gypsies or from amid the uproarious conditions of 

 a city orgy." Among these papers of riotous phantasy, the most 

 famous were the series called the ' Noctes Ambrosianae,' which had 

 been begun in 1822 when Lockhart, as well as Wilson, was a contri- 

 butor to Blackwood, but which, taken up in 1825 by Wilson for him- 

 self, after Lockhart's departure for London, were continued by him 

 till 1836, when the death of the Ettrick Shepherd, their principal sup- 

 posed character, naturally put an end to them. It was these ' Noctea ' 

 that carried the name of " Christopher North" over the world as the 

 pseudonym of Wilson. They were followed by a series called ' Dies 

 Boreales,' which extended from 1836 to 1846, but were less popular. 



After the death of his wife, which took place about 1840 and left 

 a profound sorrow in his heart, Wilson was much less active than he 

 had till then been. He still figured as Christopher North in stray 

 papers in 'Blackwood;' in 1842 he even published separately, under 

 the title of ' Recreations of Christopher North,' a selection of his con- 

 tributions to the magazine ; and still as " The Professor " he was one 

 of the lions of Edinburgh society and the idol of successive classes of 

 students " to whom he lectured his moral philosophy from the backs 

 of old letters, and who cheered him till the roof rang at the end of 

 every eloquent period ; " but on the whole, the best of his career was 

 over. Latterly, too, ill-health reduced his once abundant vigour. He 

 continued in the discharge of his professional duties till 1852-53, when 

 paralysis and decay incapacitated him. A pension of 200Z. a year had 

 been granted to him by government. He lived for a time in retirement 

 at Lasswade, near Edinburgh ; and died at Edinburgh on the 3rd of 

 April 1854. In the following year his nephew, Professor Ferrier, who 

 is also his son-in-law, began the publication of a collected edition of 

 his works. Several volumes have already appeared, including the 

 ' Noctes Ambrosianse,' and the famous ' Essay on Burns,' which was 

 published separately long ago ; and when the series of volumes is 

 complete, the world will for the first time have the materials before 

 them for an estimate of the geiiius of Wilson, both as to quantity and 

 variety of production, and as to quality. It is understood that either 

 Professor Ferrier, or Professor Aytoun, who is also a son-in-law of 

 Wilson, will write a biography of their distinguished relative. 



WILSON, RICHARD, R.A. This great landscape-painter was born 

 of a respectable family at Pinegas in Montgomeryshire, in 1713. He 

 was tha third son of seven children, six sons and oue daughter. His 

 father was a clergyman, at the time of Richard's birth, in Mont- 

 gomeryshire, but he was shortly afterwards collated to the living of 

 Mold in Flintshire. Young Wilson showed very early a taste for 

 drawing, and gave such promise, that his relation Sir George Wynne 

 took him to London and placed him with an obscure portrait-painter 

 of the name of Thomas Wright, who lived in Covent Garden. With 

 this master he made great progress, but nothing is known of his 

 earliest studies. He must however have attained some rank as a por- 

 trait-painter, for in the year 1748 he painted a large picture of the 

 Prince of Wales and his brother the Duke of York, for their tutor 

 Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich. 



After practising some time with success as a portrait-painter in 

 London, he went, in 1749, to Italy to study the great works of the 

 Italian masters. He had as yet tried little if anything in landscape- 

 painting; but while at Venice he paid a visit to Zuccarelli the 

 landscape-painter, who happened to be from home, and Wilson, to 

 pass the time until he came, made a sketch in oils of the view from 

 the painter's window. Zuccarelli thought so highly of this sketch, 

 that he recommended Wilson to give up portrait and to take to land- 

 scape. Another occurrence which happened to him in Rome induced 

 him to follow this advice. Vernet, the celebrated French landscape- 

 painter, visited him in his studio at Rome, and was so much struck 

 with a landscape of Wilson's which he saw there, that he offered to 

 make an exchange with him of one of his own landscapes for it, which 

 was readily assented to by Wilson. From this time he devoted him- 

 self to landscape, and soon acquired so great a reputation, that he had 

 many scholars even while in Rome, and Mengs offered to paint his 

 portrait for a landscape. Wilson did not do as many painters have 

 done, that is, copy the works of celebrated masters, but he went imme- 

 diately to the source of all art, and confined his studies to nature. 

 By this course he attained that bold natural yet classical style for 

 which he ia distinguished, avoided the acquisition of adventitious 

 beauties, and escaped the mannerism which generally arises from the 

 too partial study of favourite masters. 



He returned to London in 1755, after an absence of six years. In 



1760 he exhibited, in the great room at Spring Gardens, his celebrated 

 picture of Niobe, which was purchased by William, duke of Cumber- 

 land. This work established his reputation in England as one of the 

 first landscape-painters of his time. In 1765 he exhibited in the same 

 place a ' View of Rome from the Villa Madama,' which was purchased 

 by the then Marquis of Tavistock. He was one of the first members 

 of the Royal Academy, which was founded in 1678 ; and at the death 

 of Hayman, in 1770, he was appointed librarian in his place : this 

 appointment brings a very small emolument with it, yet, small as it 

 is, Wilson solicited the place ; for although a few discriminating con- 

 noisseurs purchased some of his best pictures, he was neglected by the 

 body of picture buyers, and was in a state of comparative indigence. 

 He was also, probably in part from his uucouthness of manners and 

 unpliant temper, unpopular with his fellow-academicians. Reynolds 

 and Wilson are said to have regarded each other with mutual dislike. 

 As landscape-painters Barrett and Smith of Chichester were in much 

 greater request than Wilson. The following anecdote gives a deplo- 

 rable picture, if true, of Wilson's prospects. He was, it is told, in 

 the habit of taking his works round to the various brokers and selling 

 his pictures for whatever they would give him. Upon one occasion, 

 when he took a painting to a picture-dealer in St. James's parish, he 

 was led up to the attic by the dealer, who, opening a door, pointed 

 to a pile of landscapes against the wall, and said, " Look ye, Dick, you 

 know I wish to oblige you ; but see, there's all the stock I've paid you 

 for these three years." And it is a fact that some of these landscapes, 

 for which Wilson received only a few pounds, have been since sold for 

 nearly as many hundreds. 



Wilson was generally so unfortunate in the sale of his works, that 

 when one met with a ready sale and more than usual attention, he 

 repeated it; and he painted some subjects as many as four or even 

 five times, making only very slight alterations : he painted five 

 pictures of Maecenas's Villa at Tivoli. The following are among 

 his principal works : ' Niobe ; ' ' Phaeton ; ' large view of Rome ; 

 ' Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli ; ' large view on the river Po in Italy ; 

 a companion to it, called ' Solitude ; ' ' View on the coast of Baito ; ' 

 'View on the Strada Nomentana;' 'Hadrian's Villa;' several viuws 

 near Rome ; ' Temple of Bacchus near Rome ; ' ' View on the 

 Tiber;' 'View of the Bridge of Rimini;' the 'Lake of Nemi;' 

 ' Cicero at his Villa ; ' ' View of Ancona ; ' ' Broken Bridge of Narni ; ' 

 ' Ruins on the coast of Baise ; ' ' Temple of Venus at Baise ; ' ' Island 

 in the Gulf of Venice ; ' ' Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii ; ' ' Apollo 

 and the Seasons ; ' ' Celadon and Amelia ; ' ' Meleager and Atalaute ; ' 

 ' Ceyx and Alcyone ; ' ' Sion House from Kew Gardens ; ' ' Tabley 

 House, Cheshire ; ' ' View on the river Dee ; ' ' Wilton H ouse ; ' ' View 

 on the Thames;' 'View at Milbank;' 'View of Rosamonds Pond, 

 St. James's Park ; ' ' View of Croome, Worcestershire ; ' ' View of 

 Moor Park, Herts ; ' ' the Hermitage ; ' ' View of Dover ; ' ' Llangollen 

 Bridge, with Castle Dinas Bran ; ' ' View near Llangollen Bridge ; ' 

 ' View of Oakhampton Castle ; ' ' Carnarvon Castle ; ' ' Kilgarrou 

 Castle;' 'Pembroke Town and Castle;' 'Snowdon;' 'Cader Idris ; ' 

 and the great bridge over the Taffe; besides a great many landscapes 

 which have no particular designation. The figures in his landscapes 

 are not all painted by himself; he occasionally availed himself of the 

 assistance of Mortimer and Hayman. Many of Wilson's works have been 

 engraved ; the following engravers have executed plates after him: 

 Woollet, who has engraved nine; W. Sharpe, who executed the figures 

 in the ' Niobe ' engraved by Samuel Smith ; Pouucey ; Ellis ; W. Byrne ; 

 W. Elliott; J. Mason; P. C. Cauot; E. and M. Rooker ; J. Wood; J. 

 Roberts; J. Gandon; J. Farringdon; W.Hodges; Middiman; Earlom; 

 Cockburn; C. Turner; T. Morris; Reynolds, &c. 



Wilson changed his residence very often. He first lived in the 

 Piazza, Covent Garden; then in Charlotte-street, Fitzroy-square ; in 

 Great Queen-street ; in Lincoln's Inn-Fields ; in Foley -place, and in 

 other places ; but his last residence in London was a mean house 

 in Tottenham-street, Tottenham-court-road, of which he had the first 

 and second floors, where he lived almost without furniture. The last 

 two or three years of his life however were spent in affluence, owing 

 to some property which he inherited from a brother. He retired to 

 the house of his relation Mrs. C. Jones, called Colomondie : it is near 

 the village of Llanverris in Denbighshire, now called Loggerheads. He 

 died at the last-named place in 1782, aged sixty-nine, and was buried 

 in the churchyard of Mold. The village of Llauverris is now generally 

 called Loggerheads, on account of the sign of the Loggerheads which 

 Wilson painted for the public-house of the village. 



There is a common report that Wilson composed his picture of 

 ' Ceyx and Alcyone ' for a pot of beer set on the remains of a Stilton 

 cheese ; whereas the correct version of the story is, that it was partly 

 composed from a pot of beer set on the remains of a Stilton cheese, 

 which any one may perceive to be the correct version by looking at 

 the composition. Wilson, like many other men of genius, has had 

 many stories told of him which are not true, and are not worth con- 

 tradiction. Three of Wilson's landscapes 'The Ruins of the Villa 

 of Maecenas at Tivoli,' a work of great force ; ' Landscape with figures 

 representing the Destruction of Niobe's children,' one of his classical 

 works, well known by Sir Joshua Reynolds's criticism on it ; and a 

 ' Landscape with Figures,' form a part of the National Gallery ; and 

 there are four small pictures by Wilson in the Vernon Collection : 

 they are now all exhibited together at Marlborough House. 



