that would sweep over Western Europe from the late 18th
Century. Although often antithetical or, at the very least,
competitive, Wilson found a way to reconcile the ideals of
both movements in his work.
Neoclassicism revived the styles and spirit of ancient Greece
and Rome in the both the literary and visual arts, not to
mention architecture, as manifested by an onslaught of
Greco-Roman columns, colonnades and triangular pedi-
ments. Romanticism, on the other hand, was an artistic
and intellectual movement that, put succinctly, was more
individualistic, characterized by emotive expression and
Richard Wilson, View near Wynnstay, the Seat of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, BT,
1770–71, oil on canvas, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
HYLAND
