RICHARD Wilson was among the most prominent artists of his day.

He was born in Penegroes near Machynlleth in August 1713, the son of a family of vicars and grandson of another prominent member of the clergy, Hugh Wilson of Trefeglwys.

The Wilson’s were a family of some high esteem and related to the Wynn family of Mold where Richard spent much of his childhood before he moved to London in 1729 to train as a portrait painter.

He enjoyed much success and painted the future King George III as a child in 1748,

Richard had also painted landscapes, including a View of Westminster Bridge and a View of Dover in 1747.

In 1750 Richard ventured to Venice and then to Rome where met artists Claude Joseph Vernet and Francesco Zuccarell, two of the most prominent artists of the late Baroque Rococo period.

The two had told Richard to abandon portraits and instead focus on landscapes.

Richard took their advice and spent six years in Italy, painting Tivoli, the Alban Hills and the Neapolitan coast.

Upon his return to Britain he became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy, serving as its librarian for a year before his retirement in Mold where he died in 1782.

Wilson’s painting style was much copied following his death.

He is now regarded as one of the great landscape painters of 18th century Europe and regarded as an inspiration to John Constable and Joseph Turner in terms of his interpretation of light.

His own inspiration came equally from Italy and Wales, the land of his birth and death and land where he had spent six of his most creative years.

His portrait, painted by Anton Raphael Mengs in Rome, is in the National Museum of Wales.