Richard Wilson was born in Penegoes, Wales in 1714, the son of a clergyman. In 1729 he moved to London to study portraiture with Thomas Wright. Around 1746 he began to paint landscapes and the trip to Italy that he undertook in 1750 confirmed his vocation as a landscape painter.

He spent seven years in Italy and first met in Venice the landscape designer Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788) who would play a decisive role in its reorientation. In 1752, he left for Rome where he stayed until 1757, the year of his return to England. He frequents Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), a French painter famous for his seascapes, and Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), a neoclassical German painter. Wilson produced classical landscapes and drawings of Roman sites and buildings for English aristocrats. 
Back in London, he became a well-known teacher and produced classical landscapes which he exhibited as a member of the Society of Artists. In 1768, he was a founding member of the Royal Academy where he exhibited dozens of works until 1780. 
Richard Wilson died in Colomendy in Wales on May 15, 1782. He was buried in the grounds of Saint Mary's Church in Mold.
Richard Wilson had a profound impact on landscape art in England. He is in the lineage of the great classical French painters of the 17th century.^e century, including Claude Lorrain, from whom he borrows formal rigor and mastery of lighting effects, particularly backlighting. The contemplation of nature and the desire to convey a poetic and idealized image of it also connects him to the great French landscape painter. Also an admirer of the Dutchman Albert Cuyp (1620-1691), Wilson borrows from him the large cloudy skies that let a softened light filter through.