The White Monk

Artist Richard Wilson (British, 1713/14-1782)

Place of OriginWales

Dateabout 1760-1762

DimensionsPainting: 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)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1958.38

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Label TextSon 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 and apparently referring to the barely discernible white-robed figure in front of the mountain shrine in the background.Published ReferencesTatlock, R. R., English Painting of the XVIIth-XXth Centuries...A Record of the Collection in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Formed by the First Viscount Leverhulme, London, 1928, p. 69, no. 627, pl. 44.

Bury, A., Richard Wilson, R. A., The Grand Classic, Leigh-on-Sea, 1947, p. 68.

Constable, W. G., Richard Wilson, Cambridge, 1953, pp. 119, 227 I (I), pl. 122a.

Lawson, Edward P., "The Pastoral Scene," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 3, no. 2, Spring 1960, p. 35, repr. p. 36.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," The Art Quarterly, vol. XXIII, no. 3, Autumn 1960, p. 302, repr. p. 314.

Wittmann, Otto, "Treasures at Toledo, Ohio," Apollo, vol. LXXXI, no. 35, Jan. 1965, p. 29.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 168, pl .317.

Solkin, David H., Richard Wilson, London, Tate Gallery, 1982, no. 103, pp. 66-69, 215, repr. p. 214, and (col.) Plate VI (as c. 1760-1762).

Master Paintings 1470-1820, London, Agnew, May 18-June 30, 1982, no. 1 (not in sale) (as c. 1760).

Sutton, Denys, "A Meditative Love of Nature: The Richard Wilson Exhibition," Apollo, vol. 117, no. 251, Jan. 1983, p. 43, repr. fig. 10.

Behm, Harald, "Ein Begrunder der Englischen Landschaftsmalerei," Weltkunst, vol. 53, no. 4, Feb. 15, 1983, p. 411, repr. (col.) Abb. 6.

The Heroic Age, An Exhibition, London, Thos. Agnew & Sons, 1984, p. 16.

Wilson, (The Great Artists Series, no. 58) London, 1986, repr. (col.), p. 1842.

Wilton, Andrew, Pintura Britanica de Hogarth a Turner, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1988, no. 9, p. 110, repr. (col.) (as c. 1765).

Warner, Malcom and Robyn Asleson, Great British Paintings from American Collections; Holbein to Hockney, New Haven, Yale Univesity Press, 2001, no. 20, pp. 97, 99, repr. (col.).

Pelizzari, Maria Antonella, ed., Traces of India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of Representation, 1850-1900, Montreal, Canadian Centre for Architecture; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 2003, pp. 70-71, fig. 5.

Wilton, Andrew, Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia: April 29- June 25, 2010, New York, Richard L. Feigen & Co., 2010, no. 9, 1 v. (unpaged), repr. (col.).

Postle, Martin and Robin Simon, eds., Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, 2014, cat. no. 96, pp.280-81, repr. (col.) p. 280.

Clifton, James and Melina Kervandjian eds., A Golden Age of European Art: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston, The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 2016, pp. 106-108, repr. (col.) fig. 6, p. 108.

Exhibition History

London, National Gallery, Millbank (Tate Gallery), Loan Exhibition of Works by Richard Wilson, 1925, no. 29.

Manchester, City Art Gallery, Richard Wilson Loan Exhibition, 1925, no. 63.

Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, Richard Wilson and His Circle, 1948, no. 57.

London, Tate Gallery, Richard Wilson, 1982, no. 103.

The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. 1982-83.

Madrid, Prado, Pintura Britanica de Hogarth a Turner, 1988-1989, no. 9.

New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; San Marino, Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Great British Paintings from American Collections; Holbein to Hockney, 2001-2002.

New York, Richard L. Feigen & Co., Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia, April 29 - June 25, 2010, cat. no. 9

New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; Cardiff, National Museum Wales, Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting, March 6-October 26, 2014.