'Richard Wilson' in Cardiff
August 27 2014
Picture: National Museum of Wales, via Spectator
Roderick Conway Morris, in The Spectator, has a good review of the National Museum of Wales' current exhibition on Richard Wilson, and includes this nice line by Constable:
‘I recollect nothing so much as a solemn — bright — warm — fresh landscape by Wilson, which swims in my brain like a delicious dream,’ wrote Constable of his encounter with the Welsh artist’s ‘Tabley House, Cheshire’ after he visited the gallery of that house owned by Sir John Leicester. Recalling this epiphany, Constable went on to say of Richard Wilson: ‘He was one of the great appointments to shew to the world what exists in nature but which was not known till his time.’
'Swims in my brain like a delicious dream'... I can think of few better ways to describe the mental impact of a good painting.
The exhibition is on until 26th October. Other Wilson goodies at the moment: there's a handy interactive map (by Yale) of Wilson's travels in Italy here; of his travels in Wales here; and a catalogue of the exhibition edited by Martin Postle and Robin Simon can be ordered here. And to look forward to we have Paul Spencer-Longhurst's catalogue raisonne of Wilson's paintings and drawings (again, a Yale production).
