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The White Monk

The White Monk

Artist: Richard Wilson (British, 1713/14-1782)
Date: about 1760-1762
Dimensions:
Painting: H: 26 in. (66 cm); W: 31 1/2 in. (80 cm)
Frame: H: 33 1/2 in. (84.5 cm); W: 39 in. (99.1 cm); D: 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1958.38
Label Text:Son of a Welsh clergyman, Wilson started his artistic career as a portraitist. However, after a stay in Italy 1750–57, he devoted himself to landscape painting. This work was painted after his return to England and seems to be a composite image based on memory, rather than a specific view. The craggy landscape, over which a storm is about to break, is inhabited by a traveler and by a young couple sheltering under a white parasol.

The title “The White Monk” is a traditional one, given to the painting (and the 30-some variations Wilson made of it) in the 19th century.

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