Benedict Nicolson

British, 1914 - 1978

Explore Selected Works

Pier Francesco Mola, The Return of the Spies from the Promised Land, c. 1666, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper, laid down on an old album sheet, Gift of Donald Stone, 2022.40.6

The Return of the Spies from the Promised Land

Pier Francesco Mola · c. 1666 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper, laid down on an old album sheet ·  Accession ID  2022.40.6

Mountains painted in tones of sage and mint green and mauve purple are backlit against a hazy sky in this expansive, nearly square landscape painting. In the bottom quarter of the composition, the dirt-packed land is partially covered with patches of scrubby grass. A person, tiny in the landscape, sits on a rock to the left of the bottom center of the painting. That person has pale skin and wears a wide-brimmed, dark hat, a slate-blue jacket, muted red pants, and shin-high boots. He rests his head in one hand, that elbow propped on his bent knee. He braces a stick, perhaps a walking stick, against the other shoulder, and a canteen hangs by one hip. A path starting in the lower left corner of the painting winds back into the deep distance. A complex of pale-colored buildings sits on a rocky cliff face near the center of the composition, and another complex is tucked on a distant mountain to the left. The mountains span the left two-thirds of the painting and taper down to meet a crescent-shaped body of water to the right. Another building in the deep distance near the right edge of the canvas is outlined against a smoky, pale blue ridge. White clouds pile in the hazy sky in the top half of the painting. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “I Wright Pinx 1790.”
Joseph Wright, Italian Landscape, 1790, oil on canvas, Paul Mellon Collection, 1983.1.47

Italian Landscape

Joseph Wright · 1790 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1983.1.47