Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-wilson-606" aria-label="More by Richard Wilson" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Richard Wilson</a>
Landscape with Bathers Cattle and Ruin
Bequeathed by John Staniforth Beckett 1889
actions: processes and functions
adults
animals: mammals
architecture
bathing / swimming
building
building - non-specific
cow
dressing / undressing
hill
lake
landscape
leisure and pastimes
natural phenomena
people
recreational activities
reflection
ruins
townscapes / man-made features
water: inland
woman
wooded
<p>This composition is one of numerous idealised landscapes by Wilson based on the scenery he had observed in Italy in the 1750s. The arrangement of classical buildings in an imaginary setting was a device Wilson had learnt from Claude. Unlike the earlier master, however, Wilson tended to include ancient buildings that were no longer intact, thereby evoking a sense of time past. The domed ruin in the centre of this view is derived from a building just outside Rome, known in the eighteenth century as the Temple of Minerva Medica. The nude bathers in the foreground, with their overtones of Greek sculpture, are likewise a way of suggesting antiquity.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
Landscape with Bathers, Cattle and Ruin
support: 584 × 749 mm
frame: 880 × 1050 × 155 mm
Bequeathed by John Staniforth Beckett 1889
<p>This <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> is one of numerous idealised <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a> by Wilson based on the scenery he had observed in Italy in the 1750s. The arrangement of <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/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> buildings in an imaginary setting was a device Wilson had learnt from Claude. Unlike the earlier master, however, Wilson tended to include ancient buildings that were no longer intact, thereby evoking a sense of time past. The domed ruin in the centre of this view is derived from a building just outside Rome, known in the eighteenth century as the Temple of Minerva Medica. The nude bathers in the foreground, with their overtones of Greek <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>, are likewise a way of suggesting antiquity.</p>
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2004-08-18T00:00:00
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actions: processes and functions adults animals: mammals architecture bathing / swimming building building - non-specific cow dressing / undressing hill lake landscape leisure and pastimes natural phenomena people recreational activities reflection ruins townscapes / man-made features water: inland woman wooded