Joshua Reynolds treated him with injustice. Wilson was one of the original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy, and in 1776 applied for and obtained the post of Librarian to that body, the small salary helping the struggling man to live. The last years of his life were brightened by better fortune. A brother left him a legacy, and in 1780 Wilson retired to a pleasant home at Llanberis, Carnarvon, where he died two years later. Mr. Redgrave says of him: "There is this praise due to our countryman--that our landscape art, which had heretofore been derived from the meaner school of Holland, following his great example, looked thenceforth to Italy for its inspiration; that he proved the power of native art to compete on this ground also with the art of the foreigner, and prepared the way for the coming men, who, embracing Nature as their mistress, were prepared to leave all and follow her." Wilson frequently repeated his more successful pictures. _The Ruins of the Villa of Maecenas, at Tivoli_ (National Gallery), was painted five times by him. In the same Gallery are _The Destruction of Niobe's Children_, _A Landscape with Figures_, three _Views in Italy_, _Lake Avernus with the Bay of Naples in the distance_, &c. In the Duke of Westminster's collection are _Apollo and the Seasons_ and _The River Dee_. Wilson, like many another man of genius, lived before his time, and was forced one day to ask Barry, the Royal Academician, if he knew any one mad enough to employ a landscape painter, and if so, whether he would recommend him. [Illustration: MORNING. _By_ RICHARD WILSON.] Singularly unlike Wilson in his fortunes was a painter of the same school, named GEORGE BARRET (1728?--1784), an Irishman, who began life by colouring prints for a Dublin publisher, and became the popular landscape painter of the day, receiving vast sums for his pictures, whilst Wilson could hardly buy bread. Patronised by Burke, who gained him the appointment of Master-Painter to Chelsea Hospital, and receiving for his works L2,000 a year, Barret died poor, and his pictures, once so prized, are neglected, whilst the works of Wilson are now valued as they deserve. Another artist who derived his inspiration from Wilson was JULIUS CAESAR IBBETSON (1759--1817), who painted landscapes with cattle and figures and rustic incidents with much success.