Background
Richard Wilson was born on August 1, 1714 in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, United Kingdom (present-day Penegoes, Powys, United Kingdom). He was a son of John Wilson, who was a clergyman.
Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD, United Kingdom
In 1776, Wilson was appointed a librarian to the Royal Academy and that appointment was largely a charitable gesture.
Richard Wilson was born on August 1, 1714 in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, United Kingdom (present-day Penegoes, Powys, United Kingdom). He was a son of John Wilson, who was a clergyman.
In 1729, Richard studied portraiture under the guidance of Thomas Wright in London.
In 1746, Richard painted his works "Founding Hospital" and "St. George's Hospital" for the Founding Hospital. Some time later, in 1750, Wilson went to Venice and about a year later to Rome, where Salvator Rosa was his chief model for dramatic landscapes with storms, shipwrecks and bandits. For six years, Wilson made an intensive study of the Italian landscape, especially scenes with classical associations, working up his open-air sketches into studio pictures, strongly influenced in his handling of light and air by the Dutch masters and in his composition by Gaspard Dughet, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.
After his return to England in 1756 or 1757, Wilson took an apartment in the Great Piazza in Covent Garden, where he also had a studio for his pupils. He made his chief bid for fame with a number of versions of the "Destruction of the Daughters of Niobe", one of which was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1760. The verdict of Sir Joshua Reynolds was unfavorable, but in any case, the taste of the aristocracy was not for heroic essays in the sublime, corresponding to the theories of Edmund Burke, but for pictures of their country houses, elevated by the style of Claude Lorrain and for Italian scenes, that reminded them of their grand tours.
Between 1765 and 1769, Richard gave up his apartment in Covent Garden. Elected a founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, he established a practice both substantial and lucrative, but sporadic ill health, generosity, touchiness and the unremunerative proportion of his time, devoted to uncommissioned heroic landscapes, all contributed to the decline of his fortune. In 1776, Wilson was appointed a librarian to the Royal Academy and that appointment was largely a charitable gesture.
During his lifetime, Wilson frequently visited his beloved Wales, where he retired in 1781. After his death, his fame increased, and in 1814, about seventy of his works were exhibited in the British Institution.
Hadrian's Villa
Llyn-y-Cau, Cader Idris
The Destruction of Niobe's Children
Dinas Bran from Llangollen
Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Bridge
St Peters and the Vatican from the Janiculum, Rome
Meleager and Atalanta
Summer Evening (Caernarvon Castle)
Cicero's Villa and the Gulf of Pozzuoli
Dover
The White Monk
Landscape Capriccio with Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii, and the Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli
Commodore Thomas Smith
The Head of Lake Nemi
Caernarvon Castle
View near Wynnstay, the Seat of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, BT
A View of the Tiber with Rome in the Distance
Lago d'Agnano with Vesuvius in the distance
Lake Avernus I
View of the Wilderness in St. James's Park
Wilton House from the Southeast
Distant View of Maecenas' Villa, Tivoli
Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle
View of Tivoli: the Cascatelle and the 'Villa of Maecenas'
Lago d'Agnano with the Grotta del Cane
Italian Landscape (Morning)
Tivoli: The Temple of the Sybil and the Campagna
Richard Wilson was described in the Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales as the "most distinguished painter Wales has ever produced and the first to appreciate the aesthetic possibilities of his country".
Quotes from others about the person
"Wilson paints in a manly way and occasionally reaches exquisite tones of colour". — John Ruskin, an English art critic of the Victorian era