Yale Center for British Art
Creator:
Richard Wilson, 1713/4–1782, British, active in Italy (1750–56)
Title:
View near Wynnstay, the Seat of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, fourth Bt.
Date:
1770 to 1771
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
71 x 96 3/8 inches (180.3 x 244.8 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.84
Gallery Label:
Painted at the height of Richard Wilson’s career as a landscape painter, just before his precipitous decline into ill health and poverty, this view in Wales is one of a pair (its companion piece is shown opposite) that hung in the London home of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn. Williams-Wynn was one of the richest men in Britain, and this would have been perhaps the most prestigious commission of Wilson’s life. As Welshmen, both Wilson and his patron would have found special nationalistic significance in the depiction of the ancient Welsh fortress of Dinas Bran. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016