Editing Richard Wilson (painter) (section)

==Life==
The son of a clergyman, Richard Wilson was born on 1 August 1714, in the village of Penegoes in [[Montgomeryshire]] (now [[Powys]]). The family was an established one, and Wilson was first cousin to [[Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden]].<ref>{{Cite DWB |id=s-WILS-RIC-1713 |title=WILSON, RICHARD (1713-1782), landscape painter |first1=John Edward Horatio |last1=Steegman |first2=Iorwerth Cyfeiliog |last2=Peate |author-link2=Iorwerth Peate |date=1959}}</ref> In 1729 he went to [[London]], where he began as a [[portrait]] painter, under the apprenticeship of an obscure artist, Thomas Wright. Wilson could often be found walking around [[Marylebone Gardens]] with his acquaintance [[Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti]] heading toward the Farthing Pie House,<ref>{{cite web|title=British History Online|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp406-441|access-date=11 February 2015}}</ref> now known as the [[Greene Man]].

From 1750 to 1757 Wilson was in Italy, and became a landscape painter on the advice of [[Francesco Zuccarelli]]. Painting in Italy and afterwards in Britain, he was the first major British painter to concentrate on landscape. He composed well, but saw and rendered only the general effects of nature, thereby creating a personal, ideal style influenced by [[Claude Lorrain]] and the Dutch landscape tradition. [[John Ruskin]] wrote that Wilson "paints in a manly way, and occasionally reaches exquisite tones of colour".<ref name="ruskin 189">{{cite book |title=Modern Painters, Volume I: Part II |url=https://archive.org/details/modernpaintersvo29907gut |author=John Ruskin |location=189}}</ref> He concentrated on painting idealised Italianate landscapes and landscapes based upon classical literature, but when his painting, ''[[The Destruction of the Children of Niobe]]'' (c.1759–60), won acclaim, he gained many commissions from landowners seeking classical portrayals of their estates. 
Among Wilson's pupils was the painter [[Thomas Jones (artist)|Thomas Jones]]. His landscapes were acknowledged as an influence by [[John Constable|Constable]], [[John Crome]] and [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]].

Wilson died at [[Llanferres#Colomendy Hall|Colomendy]], [[Denbighshire]] on 15 May 1782, and is buried in the grounds of [[St Mary's Church, Mold]], [[Mold, Flintshire|Flintshire]].