WILSON, RICHARD (1714-1782), English landscape painter, was born at Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, where his father was a clergyman, on Aug. 1, 1714. In 1729 he was sent to London to study under Thomas Wright, a little-known portrait painter of the time. After six years he started on his own account, and was soon in a good practice. In 1749 Wilson visited Italy, where he spent six years. "Niobe," one of his best works, was exhibited at the Society of Artists in 176o. He was an original member of the Royal Academy and was a regular contributor to its exhibi tions till 1780. During his lifetime his landscapes were never widely popular; his temper was consequently embittered by neglect, and he was so poor that he had to live in an obscure, half-furnished room in Tottenham Court Road, London. In 1776, however, he obtained the post of librarian to the Academy; and by the death of a brother he acquired a small property near Llanferras, Denbighshire, to which he retired to spend his last days, and where he died suddenly in May 1782. After his
death his fame increased, and in 1814 about seventy of his works were exhibited in the British Institution. The National Gallery, London, contains nine of his landscapes.
See Studies and Designs by Richard Wilson, done at Rome in the year 1752 (Oxford, 1811) ; T. Wright, Some Account of the Life of Richard Wilson (1824) ; Thomas Hastings, Etchings from the Works of Richard Wilson, with some Memoirs of his Life (London, 1825). Many of Wilson's best works were reproduced by Woollett and other engravers of the time. His portraits will be found in Greenwich hospital, the Garrick Club and private collections.