A View of Alexander Pope's Villa, Twickenham, on the Banks of the Thames, ca. 1759
Oil on canvas
20 x 30 7/8 in. (50.8 x 78.5 cm)
Throughout his life Samuel Scott painted scenes of the River Thames, first as a resident of London and then – from the 1750s – as a resident of Twickenham, a fashionable enclave on the western outskirts of the city. One of the town’s celebrated residents was the English poet Alexander Pope. Although Pope had died several years before Scott moved to Twickenham, his villa was still a well-known landmark. Scott painted several versions of the house, differing mainly in the shipping in the foreground. The boathouse on the extreme left of the picture belonged to the portrait painter Thomas Hudson. (See his painting in the Berger Collection, The Radcliffe Family.)
Provenance
Private collection, U.K.; Christie's, New York, January 29, 1998, lot 59
Bibliography
Literature: R. Kingzett, "A Catalogue of the Works of Samuel Scott," Walpole Society, Vol. XLVIII, 1982, pp. 64-67, 103-105, pls. 26 a & b, pls. 28 a-d
Versions: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Lewis Walpole Library (Yale University), Farmington, Connecticut
See Artist Profile