Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
attributed to <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Tivoli and Roman Campagna after Wilson
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
architecture
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
fine art and design, named works
hill
Italy, Campagna di Roma
landscape
objects
places
rocky
Tivoli - non-specific
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
Wilson, Richard, painting
<p>Turner was a great admirer of Richard Wilson: the first British painter to combine a close attention to nature with lessons learnt from the seventeenth-century masters, Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, and Gaspard Dughet. This painting is based on a picture by Wilson that exists in a number of versions. Turner’s work omits some features that appear in the Wilson, making Turner’s copy more of a direct representation of the view, though he does retain the large rocks that seem to have been introduced into the foreground by Wilson.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
6 April 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
6 April 2007 – 30 September 2007
2007-09-30
2007-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-04-06
Visions of Italy
Collection based display
28 July 2010 – 3 September 2010
2010-09-03
28 July 2010 – 3 September 2010
2010-09-03
2010-07-28
Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Merthyr Tydfil, UK)
2010-07-28
Centenary Exhibition
Loan-out
6 March 2014 – 29 October 2014
2014-10-29
6 March 2014 – 1 June 2014
2014-06-01
2014-03-06
Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, USA)
http://ycba.yale.edu/index.asp
5 July 2014 – 29 October 2014
2014-10-29
2014-07-05
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (Cardiff, UK)
2014-03-06
Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Art
Loan-out
Tivoli and the Roman Campagna (after Wilson)
support: 724 × 965 mm
frame: 806 × 1035 × 49 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<p>Turner was a great admirer of Richard Wilson: the first British painter to combine a close attention to nature with lessons learnt from the seventeenth-century masters, Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, and Gaspard Dughet.  This painting is based on a picture by Wilson that exists in a number of versions.  Turner’s work omits some features that appear in the Wilson, making Turner’s copy more of a direct representation of the view, though he does retain the large rocks that seem to have been introduced into the foreground by Wilson.</p>

Display caption
2007-04-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>44. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-tivoli-and-the-roman-campagna-after-wilson-n05512" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05512</span></a>]<b> Tivoli: Temple of the Sibyl and the Roman Campagna</b>
<i>c.</i> 1798
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (5512)
<br/>Canvas, 29 × 38 (73·5 × 96·5)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (298, with marginal note ‘(copy from Wilson)’, identified 1946 by chalk number on back); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1947.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Davies 1946, pp. 163, 191 n. 27; Chubb 1981, p. 417 n. 1; Shanes 1981, p. 46.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is based on a Wilson that exists in a number of versions at Cardiff, Philadelphia, the Tate Gallery and elsewhere (the Tate version and one in a private collection repr. W.G. Constable, <i>Richard Wilson</i> 1953, pls. 115a and 116b); the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> was also <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraved</span></a> in reverse by W. Byrne in 1765. Turner omits both the large tree and the figures that appear in varied forms in the Wilsons, thus making his copy more of a direct transcript of the view, though he does retain the large rocks that also seem to have been introduced into the foreground by Wilson.
<br/>
<br/>William Chubb, acting on the information of David Solkin that Turner's friend the Rev. Henry Scott Trimmer owned versions of the original Wilson and also of No. 545 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-tivoli-n05538" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05538</span></a>] below, now attributed to Wilson, suggests that Turner's copy might not have been made until after about 1807 when he first got to know Trimmer. However, the style of this copy seems to rule out so late a dating. Chubb also suggests that No. 545 might either be a companion work painted by Turner at the same time or that Turner might already have owned No. 545 [<span>N05538</span>] when he painted No. 44 as its companion. It seems simplest to suggest that Turner was not dependent on the picture or pictures in Trimmer's collection, or that if he was dependent on these versions, that he had somehow seen them before getting to know Trimmer personally.
<br/>
<br/>For two further pictures formerly thought to be copies of Wilson by Turner but now attributed to Wilson or his followers see Nos. 546–7. [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-valley-with-a-bridge-over-a-river-n01890" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01890</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-niagara-falls-n01891" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01891</span></a>]
<br/>
<br/>Eric Shanes suggests that <i>Pluto carrying off Proserpine</i>, exhibited in 1839 (No. 380), which includes a view of Tivoli close to this one, is based on this work. However, this was a favourite view with artists and Turner must have seen it himself when in Rome, so no direct copying of the Wilson motif by way of this oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> seems necessary.</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-07T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents fine art and design, named works hill Italy, Campagna di Roma landscape objects places rocky Tivoli - non-specific townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features Wilson, Richard, painting