Oil painting, Richard Wilson (style of), 'Landscape with River and Ruins'

Painting of a wooded landscape with a ruined castle, and a river in the foreground with a man fishing.

Bequeathed by John Jones

Bequeathed by John Jones, 1882
Ref : Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860. Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990. p.xix-xx

John Jones (1800-1882) was first in business as a tailor and army clothier in London 1825, and opened a branch in Dublin 1840. Often visited Ireland, travelled to Europe and particularly France. He retired in 1850, but retained an interest in his firm. Lived quietly at 95 Piccadilly from 1865 to his death in January 1882. After the Marquess of Hertford and his son Sir Richard Wallace, Jones was the principal collector in Britain of French 18th century fine and decorative arts. Jones bequeathed an important collection of French 18th century furniture and porcelain to the V&A, and among the British watercolours and oil paintings he bequeathed to the V&A are subjects which reflect his interest in France.

See also South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks. The Jones Collection. With Portrait and Woodcuts. Published for the Committee of Council on Education by Chapman and Hall, Limited, 11, Henrietta Street. 1884.
Chapter I. Mr. John Jones. pp.1-7.
Chapter II. No.95, Piccadilly. pp.8-44. This gives a room-by-room guide to the contents of John Jones' house at No.95, Piccadilly.
Chapter VI. ..... Pictures,... and other things, p.138, "The pictures which are included in the Jones bequest are, with scarcely a single exception, valuable and good; and many of them excellent works of the artists. Mr. Jones was well pleased if he could collect enough pictures to ornament the walls of his rooms, and which would do no discredit to the extraordinary furniture and other things with which his house was filled."

Historical significance: When this painting belonged to John Jones (1800-80) it was thought to be an autograph work by Richard Wilson, and it entered the museum as such in 1882. In E. B. Chancellor's Walks among London's Pictures (1910, p.244) he called it "...one of Wilson's Classic Compositions, probably a sketch for 'Cicero's Villa' now at Manchester. However doubts began to be expressed about the relationship of this picture to the "Manchester" picture. A note on the Departmental File points to the Manchester picture: "cf. no.427 in the Manchester Art Gallery: see the illustration facing p.142 of J. E. Phythian's Handbook to the Gallery (1910). The size given is 5' 6" by 5' 4", while a further note adds, "It is a copy of the Jones painting or vice versa; or else the Jones ptg is a sketch for the Manchester picture". Soon after this time the V&A catalogue entry for the painting was amended to "School of Wilson". Thereafter the painting has been considered by a number of experts, and although its relationship to a known work by Wilson is acknowledged, it is generally accepted as being, at best, by one of his pupils.

Note on Departmental file for 527-1882 "W.G. [William George] Constable [author of Richard Wilson, Routledge and Paul, 1953] (9.viii.39) verbally suggests Hodges as the author of this picture. [William Hodges (1744-97) was a pupil and studio assistant of Wilson and remained a friend until Wilson's death].

See W.G. Constable, Richard Wilson, Routledge and Paul, 1953, pl.52a [The Manchester City Art Gallery picture], p.184: Constable notes "A small version [of the Manchester picture] is in the V&A.M. (527-1882), catalogued as 'perhaps by Wilson': very doubtfully so indeed".

Note on Departmental file for 527-1882: Seen by Mr Brinsley Ford [author of The Drawings of Richard Wilson, London, Faber and Faber, 1951] and Mr Douglas Cooper on 3/6/48; "Seen with Mr Brinsley Ford and Mr Douglas Cooper, 3/6/48. Not by Wilson".

See Richard Wilson and his Circle, 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.

[*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.]

527-1882