{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O132117"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132117/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7731/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BH7731/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BH7731","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KA0973","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O132117/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O132117","accessionNumber":"DYCE.15","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"River scene with ruined castle and figures","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Painting of a river scene with ruined castle and figures at the water's edge.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Wilson, Richard","id":"A8995"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":"style of"}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"canvas","id":"AAT14078"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on canvas","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006BH7731","2017KA0973"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"B","id":"THES304798"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":"possibly"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"18th century - 19th century","earliest":"1730-01-01","latest":"1869-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"16","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx.","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"19.25","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approx.","note":""},{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Measurement taken at time of assessment prior to BH decant - Frame Dimensions (mm): H-561 W-635 D-54;\nPainting Dimensions (mm): not measured"}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimensions taken from <i>Summary catalogue of British Paintings</i>, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce, 1869\r\nThe Reverend Alexander Dyce :\r\n<u>South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks.  The Dyce and Forster Collections. With Engravings and Facsimiles</u>.  Published for the Committee of Council on Education by Chapman and Hall, Limited, 193, Piccadilly, London.  1880.  <u>Chapter I. Biographical Sketch of Mr. Dyce</u>. pp.1-12, including 'Portrait of Mr. Dyce' illustrated opposite p.1.\r\n\r\nScience and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education, South Kensington Museum.<u>A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings... Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce</u>.  London, 1874.  A 'Note' on page v comments, 'This catalogue refers to the Art portion of the Collection bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by the Reverend Alexander Dyce, the well-known Shakespearian scholar, who died May 15, 1869'.  The <u>Catalogue. Paintings, Miniatures, &c.</u> by Samuel Redgrave notes of the 'Oil Paintings', 'The strength of Mr. Dyce's valuable bequest to Department of Science and Art does not lie in [this] portion ... which is in its nature of a very miscellaneous character.  The collection was made apparently as objects offered themselves, and without any special design.'  Dyce's main interest was in literary subjects, and this is reflected in many of the paintings he bequeathed to the V&A.\n\nHistorical significance: When this painting was bequeathed to the Museum by the Rev. Alexander Dyce in 1869 it was thought to be an autograph work by Richard Wilson.  Later this was amended to \"By or after Wilson\".  Unlike with most of the paintings attributed to Wilson in the V&A no consensus has formed about this painting.  Brinsley Ford and Douglas Cooper \"were sure\" that it was not by Wilson.  But W. G. Constable expressed the view verbally on two separate occasions that it was by Wilson, and although in his 1953 <u>Richard Wilson</u> he acknowledged that the handling of paint in the middle distance was unlike Wilson's hand, he still felt able to suggest that it was \"possibly by him\".  It is now described as \"Style of\" Richard Wilson.  \r\n\r\nIn Wilson's own day there was a ready market for idealised Italianate landscapes.  Later, it was works attributed to Wilson himself that appealed to collectors, creating a further market for works that imitated his idealised style, even if they were not direct copies of known compositions by Wilson.  This seems to be one such exercise, with many of the elements associated with Wilson without following a known prototype; a prominent ruin, contemplative figures, distant view of a villa or castle seen across a calm lake.  It is a pleasant fantasy which the Italians would have called a 'capriccio'.\r\n\r\nNote on Departmental file for Dyce 15: \"W.G. [William George] Constable [author of <u>Richard Wilson</u>, Routledge and Paul, 1953] verbally expresses the view that this is a very late work painted in England\".\r\n\r\nNote on Departmental file for Dyce 15:  Dyce 15 was seen by Mr Brinsley Ford [author of <u>The Drawings of Richard Wilson</u>, London, Faber and Faber, 1951] and Mr Douglas Cooper on 3/6/48.  \"Mr Brinsley Ford and Mr Douglas Cooper were sure this was not by Wilson\".  A further note next to this comments \"Not so Prof. Constable in Augt 1948\". \r\n\r\nW.G. Constable, <u>Richard Wilson</u>, Routledge and Paul, 1953.  Repro. W. G. Constable, pl. 147b : cf. also note at p.238, \"In the slick, summary handling of the middle distance unlike the work of Wilson: but possibly by him.\"","historicalContext":"See <u>Richard Wilson and his Circle</u>, The Tate Gallery, 1949 [Organized by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham].  Although this exhibition did not include examples from the V&A, it set Wilson's then recognised paintings alongside works by pupils of Wilson, as well as  variants and copies of his work - thereby illuminating how influential and also how collectable Wilson's work was in the years after his death.  In the 'Introduction'  Mary Woodall (Keeper of the Department of Art, city Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham] wrote, \"... his pictures were.. much copied by his pupils and by others with less scrupulous motives...\".  Woodhall commented further, \"Within a few years of his death Wilson's work was confused with that of his pupils, so that Farington, when he visited the Booth collection in 1807*, pointed out that one picture was by Hodges; [Farington] also remarked that some of the pictures attributed to Wilson in the exhibition at the British Institution in 1814 were  not by the master.\"  Woodhall also noted however that \"... [Wilson] himself often made uninspired replicas of his original designs\", highlighting the difficulty in attributing works by Wilson.\r\n\r\n[*Benjamin Booth (1732-1807), was a great admirer of Wilson's work and bought many of his pictures.  Joseph Farington, R.A. (1747-1821) was a pupil of Richard Wilson, whose studio he entered in 1763.]","briefDescription":"Oil painting, 'River Scene with Ruined Castle and Figures', style of Richard Wilson","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"castle","id":"AAT6891"},{"text":"landscape","id":"x35496"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["DYCE.15"],"accessionNumberNum":"15","accessionNumberPrefix":"DYCE","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2007-02-20","availableToBook":true}}