Richard Wilson Biography

Richard Wilson was a student of the London-based portrait painter Thomas Wright and soon himself actively engaged as a portraitist. In 1750 he travelled to Venice and subsequently spent the following four years in Rome where he primarily painted landscapes, inspired by Claude Joseph Vernet. In 1755 Wilson returned to England. In 1779 he finally received an insignificant job as librarian at the Royal Academy, although he was one of its co-founders in 1768. Wilson freed English landscape painting from its topographical and decorative aspects, concentrating rather on mood and atmosphere.