A closely related but slightly larger (45.7 x 32.4cm./18 x 12 3/4 ins.) oil painting of the same view by Edward Lear (1812-1888), dated 1840 and 1841, and perhaps painted in 1841 on the basis of a drawing done the previous year, was offered for sale at Christies, New York, Old Master Paintings, part I, 25 January 2012, lot 58. That composition was also used by Lear to illustrate Tennyson's poem 'The splendour falls on castle walls'. Lear and Collins were probably in contact with one another in Italy in 1837-8.
Physical description
Oil on panel entitled 'The Villa d'Este, Tivoli'.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (exhibited)
Date
1842 (exhibited)
Artist/maker
William Collins, born 1788 - died 1847 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Oil on panel
Dimensions
Height: 40.6 cm estimate, Width: 30.2 cm estimate, Height: 583 mm frame dimensions, Width: 486 mm frame dimensions, Depth: 60 mm frame dimensions
Object history note
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Descriptive line
Oil painting entitled 'The Villa d'Este, Tivoli' by William Collins. British School, 1842.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 34
The following is the full text of the entry:
"COLLINS, William, RA (1788-1847)
Born London 8 September 1788, the son of the Irish writer William Collins, author of a memoir of George Morland RA, who encouraged the boy's interest in painting. In 1807 he entered the RA schools, and exhibited his first painting there. Made his name with 'The Disposal of a Favourite Lamb' in 1813; elected ARA 1814, RA 1820. Achieved great popularity with his landscapes and, particularly, rustic genre scenes in the 1820s; Ruskin highly praised his works in the 1840s. Married in 1822 the sister of the portrait painter Margaret Carpenter. Travelled extensively in Britain and abroad, especially in Italy 1836-38; these visits are reflected in the subjects he painted. Exhibited 124 works at the RA between 1807 and 1846, and 45 at the BI 1808-43. Librarian at the RA 1840-2. Died London 17 February 1847. His studio sale was at Christie's 31 May-5 June 1847. His two sons were the novelist William Wilkie Collins and the painter Charles Allston Collins. There are watercolours and a sketchbook in the V&A collections.
LIT: William Collins 'List of Pictures and Patrons', two MS volumes 1808-27 and 1827-46, National Art Library, V&A (referred to below as Lists); Athenaeum 20 February 1847, p200 (obit); Art Journal 1847, p137 (obit); W Wilkie Collins Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq, RA 2 vols, 1848 (referred to below as Memoirs); Art Journal 1855, p 141 W. Clarke The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins 1988
The Villa D'Este, Tivoli
FA24 Neg V650
Panel, 40.6 x 30.2 cm (16 x 11 7/8 ins)
Sheepshanks Gift 1857
Painted for Sheepshanks in the early months of 1842, and exhibited at the RA that year; it is the last entry in the Lists under 'Pictures printed from April 1841 to April 1842', the price being £52 l0s.
Collins visited Tivoli in early Spring 1837; one coloured drawing was lot 490 in his posthumous sale at Christie's 3 June 1847. The Memoirs (p205) describe the Sheepshanks painting as a companion to 'Sorrento - Bay of Naples' (see FA26, p35) and as depicting 'the famous avenue of cypresses, four hundred years old, with the terraces and the palace at the upper end of it ... executed with great vigour and brilliancy'.
EXH: RA 1842 (241); Italian Art and Britain RA 1960 (220); Victorian Painting Arts Council 1962 (8); The Victorian Vision of Italy Leicester Museum and Art Gallery 1968 (86)
LIT: Lists; Memoirs II, pp105, 205"
Labels and date
William Collins saw the Renaissance Villa d'Este near Rome, celebrated for its spectacular gardens, when he made a tour of Italy in the 1830s. In his memoirs of Collins, his son (the novelist Wilkie Collins) described this painting as depicting 'the famous avenue of cypresses, four hundred years old… executed with great vigour and brilliancy'. [5.1.2009]
Materials
Oil paint; Panel
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Villas; Tivoli
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
