Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Robert Vernon
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>
Hadrians Villa
Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
adults
arch
architecture
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
classical
countries and continents
decay
domestic
emotions, concepts and ideas
features
history
Italy, Campagna di Roma
landscape
laundry
objects
palace
people
periods and styles
places
residential
residential
ruins
Tivoli, Villa Adriana
universal concepts
woman
wooded
<p>This view is a pair to <i>Maecenas’ Villa</i>, shown nearby, which Wilson painted in England after his return from Italy in 1756. Both scenes are based closely on pencil sketches he made when he first visited the ancient ruins of Tivoli in around 1752-3. Wilson drew the Emperor Hadrian's Villa, which had once been the most extravagant of all Roman country-palaces, several times. The spectacular site of Tivoli was familiar to all travellers on the Grand Tour through the Roman poets, especially Virgil and Horace. It was also a favourite sketching-ground for artists from the seventeenth century onwards, a tradition which deeply influenced Wilson.</p><p><em>Gallery label, April 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
2 October 2001 – 30 November 2001
2001-11-30
2 October 2001 – 30 November 2001
2001-11-30
2001-10-02
Holburne Museum of Art (Bath, UK)
http://www.bath.ac.uk/Holburne/
2001-10-02
In Ruins
Loan-out
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
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2014-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-03-04
Ruin Lust
Exhibition
26 September 2019 – 30 November 2019
2019-11-30
26 September 2019 – 30 November 2019
2019-11-30
2019-09-26
Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum (Worcester, UK)
2019-09-26
Living Ruins
Tate partnerships & programmes
Hadrian’s Villa
support: 356 × 254 mm
frame: 490 × 392 × 75 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999978" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Robert Vernon</a> 1847
<p><i>Hadrian's Villa</i> is one of two small companion pictures featuring scenes around Tivoli, the other being <i>Maecenas' Villa</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-maecenas-villa-tivoli-n00303" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00303</span></a>). The present picture has also been titled <i>View in Italy with an arched ruin</i> and <i>Strada Nomentana</i>, owing to the similarity of the ruin to one which appears in another picture by Wilson, also belonging to Tate (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilson-strada-nomentana-n00301" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00301</span></a>). However, if the present picture does feature Hadrian's Villa, near Tivoli, there can be no link with the Strada Nomentana, which runs to the north-east of Rome, and in a quite different direction. 

</p><p>The present picture is closely based upon a small, on-the-spot, <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/chalk" title="Glossary definition for 'Chalk'"><span>chalk</span></a> <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> made by Wilson made during his time in Rome, around 1752-3, and now in the collection of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum, Swansea (Constable, p.201, plate 81b and Solkin,  pp.161-2, reproduced). As David Solkin has noted, in relation to this compositional drawing, Wilson was attracted to Tivoli during his years in Italy not only because of its <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> associations but also as the sketching-ground of several great seventeenth-century artists, notably Gaspard Dughet (1615-75) (Solkin, p.161). Even so, the relatively simple <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> of the present picture, concentrating upon the ruin in the foreground at the expense of a broader vista, does not adopt the customary format of seventeenth-century classical <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> that Wilson reserved for his larger, more ambitious, <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/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a>. 

</p><p>As Solkin has affirmed, <i>Hadrian's Villa</i> is not a mere topographical vignette, Wilson's picture being 'a variation on one of his favourite themes - that of "sic transit gloria", a statement concerning the tragic collapse of a once mighty Empire' (Solkin, p.217).  Wilson appears to have quite deliberately focussed upon the ruins of the villa in order to contrast its venerable history with its current state of dilapidation, it having been used by the local population as the foundation for a humble cottage dwelling. The rickety wooden fence above the arch strewn with washing highlights this point.

</p><p>Versions of <i>Hadrian's Villa</i> and <i>Maecenas' Villa, Tivoli</i> may have been the same pictures exhibited by Wilson at the Society of Artists as 'A small landscape with a ruin'and 'Ditto; its companion'. Certainly, there is no doubt that these little pictures were very popular because Wilson repeated them over and again during the early to mid 1760s. Other artists, including John Constable (1776-1837) also copied them. In 1836 Constable acknowledged the importance of Wilson to his own art: 'To Wilson  may justly be given the praise of opening the way to genuine principles of landscape in England  He looked at nature entirely for himself (Hamlyn, p.66).

</p><p>Sir Robert Vernon (1774-1849) acquired <i>Hadrian's Villa</i> and <i>Maecenas' Villa</i> probably in 1835. At that time they were known respectively as 'An Italian Hut Built on the Ruins of a Roman Acquaduct' and 'Ruins of a Roman Bath'. Vernon presented both works to the National Gallery in 1847. They were subsequently transferred to the Tate Gallery.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b><br/>W.G. Constable, <i>Richard Wilson</i>, London 1953, pp.200-2, plate 81a<br/>David H. Solkin, <i>Richard Wilson. The Landscape of Reaction</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery 1982, pp.217-8<br/>Robin Hamlyn, <i>Robert Vernon's gift. British Art for the Nation 1847</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery 1993, p.66

</p><p>Martin Postle<br/>April 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>This view is a pair to <i>Maecenas’ Villa</i>, shown nearby, which Wilson painted in England after his return from Italy in 1756. Both scenes are based closely on pencil sketches he made when he first visited the ancient ruins of Tivoli in around 1752-3. Wilson drew the Emperor Hadrian's Villa, which had once been the most extravagant of all Roman country-palaces, several times. The spectacular site of Tivoli was familiar to all travellers on the Grand Tour through the Roman poets, especially Virgil and Horace. It was also a favourite sketching-ground for artists from the seventeenth century onwards, a tradition which deeply influenced Wilson.</p>

Display caption
2007-04-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults arch architecture cities, towns, villages (non-UK) classical countries and continents decay domestic emotions, concepts and ideas features history Italy, Campagna di Roma landscape laundry objects palace people periods and styles places residential residential ruins Tivoli, Villa Adriana universal concepts woman wooded