Italy (SOLD)

Alice Boyd (1823-1897)Capella di S. Clemente, S. Marco, VeniceInscribed and dated l.r.: Capella di S. Clemente S. Marco/21 June 1873., watercolour over pencil with touches of white35.3 x 25.5 cm.; 13 7/8 x 10 inchesThe artist painted this subject in oil, recorded in Ellen C. Clayton, English Female Artists, London 1876, Vol. 2, p. 41.From 26 May to 6 July 1873 Alice travelled through Europe with Bell Scott, his wife Letitia, William Michael Rossetti and Lucy Madox Brown. Their tour started in Chambéry, France and continued through Italy where they stopped in Venice on their way home.William Bell Scott drew a similar view in pencil from a slightly different angle, entitled The Interior of St Marks, now in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland (D4715.28B).

Signed or inscribed l.l.: W Callow, inscribed l.c.: Le Forum/prise de l’arc de Constantin/26 Sept 40, watercolour over pencil on buff paper24.5 x 36 cm; 9 5/8 x 14 1/4 inchesProvenanceMrs Callow;Walker Gallery;Albany Gallery, from where purchased by the present owner;Private collection, U.K.Callow made his first trip to Italy in 1840 and spent ten days sketching in Rome, when the present work was done. Like many artists he was strongly affected by the country and his Italian views were to become some of his most popular subjects.This drawing is inscribed in French, like other drawings of the period, as Callow had been living in France since 1829. He had obtained great success and royal patronage there and in 1840 he was awarded the gold medal at the Paris Salon. He received commissions for five large watercolours from Marie Amélie, the Duc de Nemours and his pupil Princess Clémentine after they inspected his Italian sketches at the Tuileries Palace. He enjoyed much royal favour but the political instability in France and the prospect of Louis Philippe’s abdication caused him to return to England in March 1841 (see Jan Reynolds, William Callow, 1980, pp. 76-77).It has been suggested that the signature may have been added by Callow’s wife at a later date. A similar drawing of the Ponte Cartro, Rome dated 28 September is in the collection of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Inscribed and dated u.l.: Sa Ma de’ Monti/6 May 1781, pencil and grey wash on laid paper18.8 x 26.4 cm; 7 3/8 x 10 3/8 inchesProvenanceIolo Williams (1890-1962);Leger, 1992;Private collection, U.K., purchased from the aboveExhibitedMarble Hill House, Twickenham,Thomas Jones, 1970, no. 52;Leger,British Landscape Painting, 4 March - 3 April,1992, no. 25Thomas Jones was born at Trefonnen near Llandrindod in Radnorshire. At the request of his uncle, he attended Jesus College, Oxford, in order to enter the church, but in 1761 Jones went to London and enrolled at Shipley's drawing school. By March 1763, Jones had decided to pursue landscape painting and persuaded Richard Wilson (1713-1782) to take him as an apprentice. He subsequently established a thriving landscape practice. However, despite his success in London, Jones hankered after Italy.Jones had long wanted to travel to Italy; a favourite project that had been in agitation for some years, and on which my heart was fixed (A.P. Oppé, ed., Memoirs of Thomas Jones , Walpole Society, XXXII, 1946-1948, p. 37). This may have been heightened by the example of Richard Wilson, whose artistic success had been assured by the Italian scenes he painted on his return to England after six years in Rome in the 1750s. Jones had studied and copied his sketches and studies during his apprenticeship. However, for years his trip to the continent had been thwarted by mounting debts and his parents' disapproval of the scheme and Jones did not leave until October 1776.Jones was greatly affected by the changing landscape and light as he travelled through France to Italy. After a brief stay in Florence, he arrived in Rome on 27 November 1776. In his lively and informative memoirs, Jones refers to Wilson’s influence when expressing his joy at travelling through Italy and entering Rome, the: new and uncommon Sensations I was filled [with] on my first traversing this beautiful and picturesque Country ... It appeared Magick Land - In fact I had copied so many Studies of the great Man, & my Old Master, Richard Wilson ... that I insensibly became familiarized with Italian Scenes, and enamoured of Italian forms ( ibid. p. 55).From May 1780 to August 1783 Jones was based in Naples and delighted in the picturesque scenery on the road to Santa Maria dei Monti, a monastery to the east of Naples of which a number of drawings by him are known. He was influenced by the fashionable work of Salvator Rosa, with its treatment of banditti in rocky landscapes. His old friend Francis Towne arrived in Naples in March 1781, and, in his memoirs, Jones describes their trip along the wild road to the monastery : I was able to conduct him to many picturesque scenes of my own discovery, entirely out of the common road of occasional Visiters, either Cavaliers or Artists (Thomas Jones, ibid . p. 102). He drew the road many times- ten are listed in the 1970 Marble Hill catalogue- and further examples are included in the collections of the Tate, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven and the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.Two other drawings of the subject executed on 6 May, the same day as the present drawing, one coloured and one pencil and grey wash, are in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. They are of a similar size to the present work and a grey wash drawing (D2002.14) is taken from almost the same spot.Jones further recorded how he felt about this place in his Memoirs on 2nd June 1781 and another incident which he and Towne had experienced: I proceeded to meet Pars..at an Osteria in the road to S’a M’a de Monti- in this hollow Way is a most beautiful series of picturesque Objects, which I discovered by Accident in one of my perambulations-Here may visibly be traced the scenery that Salvator Rosa formed himself on-Only taking away Pine trees, which were, perhaps planted since his time, and which indicate a state of cultivation not suited to his gloomy mind, with the addition of Water and a few Banditti-And every hundred yards present you with a new sand perfect composition of that Master- When Towne was in Naples I took him with me to see this romantic place, with which he seemed much delighted- but the following whimsical incident put a stop to further explorations at that time and which I forgot to mention in its proper place- Proceeding up the valley whose boundaries contracted more and more as we advanced, increasing in proportion the Gloominess of the Scene; We arrived at a Spot, which might very properly have been termed the Land of Darkness & the Shadow of Death…Here, says I, Mr Towne, is Salvator Rosa in perfection we only want Banditti to compleat the picture- I had scarcely uttered these words when turning round a projection of the rocks, we all at once pop’d upon three ugly-looking fellows dressed in the fantastic garb of the Shirri di Campagna, with long knives cutting up a dead jackAss.-…Towne started back as if struck by an electric shock, strongly impressed, I suppose, with our late adventure on the Coast of Baja-‘I’ll go no further’, says he, with a most solemn face, adding with a forced smile, that however he might admire such scenes in a Picture- he did not relish them in Nature- (ibid. pp. 104-5).Thomas Jones’s reputation has soared in recent years, notably after the 2003 landmark exhibition Thomas Jones (1742-1803) An Artist Rediscovered (at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, the National Gallery, London, and the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester) reinstated his reputation as one of the most idiosyncratic and innovative eighteenth-century British artists.Iolo Williams (1890-1962) was the author of Early English Watercolours (published in 1952), one of the bibles of the field. He left a large part of his collection to the British Museum, but this drawing was held back. He took a keen interest in Welsh matters, serving on the Council of the National Museum of Wales and on the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council.

Inscribed and dated l.l.: Val Montone-17 Oct.br 1840., inscribed with artist’s notes, graphite26 x 39.7 cm; 10 1/4 x 15 5/8 inchesProvenanceSir Robin Darwin, R.A.;Lady Darwin;Spink, where bought by the present owner;Private collection, U.K.ExhibitedRoyal Academy, London, Edward Lear 1812-1888, 1985, no. 15i, ill p. 92Lear went to Italy in the summer of 1837. For most of the next ten years the artist wintered in Rome and toured other parts of Italy during the summer. He spent the winter months in and around Rome making frequent visits to the Campagna. He wrote in a letter to his sister Ann that Val Montone was: one of the most elegant campagna towns and very curious: it is in a deep dell in the Latin valley- but rises on a mound- crowned with a superb church and castle-though the town itself is wretchedly poor…Fine trees are all around Val Montone- and it is altogether a delightfully quiet place (recorded in the 1930s typescript of the lost manuscript of Lear’s letters to Ann, 11 October 1838).Another view of Val Montone is included in Views in Rome and its Environs, 1841, plate 25.Sir Robert Vere ‘Robin' Darwin KCB CBE RA RSA PRWA NEAC (1910 – 1974) was a British artist and Rector of the Royal College of Art. He was the son of the golf writer Bernard Darwin and his wife the engraver Elinor Monsell and a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Signed, dated and inscribed l.r.: Napoli./EdwardLear./7.07.1840.-, pencil with white on blue paper17 x 24 cmProvenancePrivate Collection, London until 2017Lear lived in Rome from December 1837 until 1848 as part of an international community of artists, a happy and productive time in his artistic development. During the summers he travelled to other parts of Italy. This characteristic, crisp drawing heightened with white on blue paper is typical of his work of the period.

Inscribed and dated l.r.: Amalphi./8 June. 1844, pen and brown ink on buff paper50 x 36 cmLear lived in Rome from 1841 until 1848 as part of an international community of artists. He had a comfortable income, as sales of his work went well. During the summers he travelled to other parts of Italy, producing fluent drawings such as the present example. His love of nonsense can be seen in the spelling of ‘Amalphi’.Provenance: Nicolas Powell (1920–86); thence by descent until 2017

Signed with monogram l.r., inscribed l.l.: Pentedatilo, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper11.4 x 20.9 cm; 4½ x 8¼ inchesProvenance: Private collection, UK, until 2018.Literature: Jasmine Jagger, ‘Moving Lines’, Apollo, December 2018, pp. 87–91, ill. p. 91.One seem’d all dark and red – a tract of sand,And someone pacing there along,Who paced for ever in a glimmering land,Lit with a low large moon.Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘The Palace of Art’Lear’s close friendship of thirty-seven years with Tennyson inspired his ‘Painting=Sympathisations’, a proposed project of three hundred memories tied to three hundred poems, reflections of the relationship between painted word landscapes and written word paintings, described by Jasmine Jagger as open to a kind of synaesthesia. In her opinion, the finest examples of Lear’s poetrypainting can be found in the works he made of Pentedattilo. 1 Lear worked on the project on and off for thirty years, his drawings going through what he described as their egg, chrysalis and caterpillar stages. The final oil, or ‘butterfly’, of the painting of Pentedattilo was given by Lear to Tennyson’s oldest son Hallam and his bride Audrey as a wedding present, and was loved by the poet. Jagger suggests the present watercolour is the closest surviving version of this ‘butterfly’, with a distant speck of a hunched-over heron and its shadow replacing the figure seen in the multiple sketches of the subject. The lightly portrayed moon suggests the passage of time, and the dark lines over the sky have just faded. 2 The artist’s plan to illustrate Tennyson’s poems began to take shape in the summer of 1852, a couple of years after they met. Although their friendship had ups and downs, Lear’s affection for the poet’s wife, Emily, remained constant. Lear enjoyed selecting the lines of Tennyson’s poems on which to base his ‘Poetical Topographical’ project, and he began work on the scheme several times. In 1878 he finally got down to work in earnest, although the project was never completed, and Lear died with unfinished Tennyson canvases in his studio. Pentedattilo is an abandoned town in Calabria on Monte Calvario, a mountain whose shape once resembled that of five fingers: hence the name, from the Greek penta and daktylos (for five and fingers). It was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1783. Lear made a trip through southern Italy in 1847; his diary records his arrival on 30 July, at an elevated plateau whence the whole ‘Toe of Italy’ is finely discernible, a sea of undulating lines of varied forms down to the Mediterranean; a few towns glittered here and there, and towering over the southern extremity of land, a high cluster of rocks, the wild crags of Pentedátilo, particularly arrested our attention . 31. Jasmine Jagger, ‘Moving Lines’, Apollo, December 2018, pp. 87–91, ill. p. 91.2. Ibid.3. Edward Lear in Southern Italy: Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria and the Kingdom of Naples, introduction by Peter Quennell, 1964, p. 41.

Signed and dated l.lr.: Edward Lear del./1838, pencil and black chalk heightened with white on green paper24.7 x 40.5 cm.; 9 ¾ x 16 inchesProvenancePrivate collection, U.K. until 2025Lear set out for Italy in the summer of 1837. For most of the next ten years the artist wintered in Rome and toured other parts of Italy during the summer. This delicately drawn sheet shows the influence of James Duffield Harding. The carefully drawn trees are probably in the Roman Campagna.

Signed with monogram l.r., watercolour over traces of pencil, inscribed on backboard: Lady Peyton /40 Wilton Crescent10.2 x 20.4 cm.; 4 1/8 x 8 inches, framed size 28 x 37 cm.; 11 x 14 1/2 inchesProvenanceLady Peyton, 40 Wilton Crescent, London;The Hon. Dorothy Gibbs, and thence by family descent;Christie’s, 17 November 2005, lot 103£5800In 1837, with financial assistance from his patron, Lord Derby (1775 -1851), the twenty-five-year-old Lear set off for Rome, where he was based for the following decade, which was a formative phase of his artistic development. During the summer months he would travel further afield in Italy, returning to Rome in the winter.Lear painted an oil sketch of this subject around 1839-1840, see Lady Strachey, The Letters of Edward Lear, 1907, p. 341.St John Lateran is considered to be the oldest church and Archbasilica in the world, founded by Pope Melchiade in 324 on the ruins of the villa of the Laterani family.

Signed and dated l.r.: Edward Lear del.1839, inscribed l.l.: Capri from above Massa., pencil heightened with white on buff paper26 x 43 cm.; 10 ¼ x 16 7/8 inchesProvenanceEugene Thaw, New York; sold on 26 February 1973 to David Carritt, LondonLear spent his summers at the end of the 1830s travelling in Italy and first drew Massa in the summer of 1838 on 22nd August, a working drawing with extensive colour notes (Christie’s, 16 July 2014, lot 570, 10 x 14 inches). The present drawing relates quite closely to his first sketch. He returned to the subject again in 1840.

Signed, inscribed and dated in pencil on original mount: Jacob More Rome 1778/A VIEW OF THE CASCADE AT NEPTUN‘S [sic] GROTTO AT TIVOLI, pen and grey ink and watercolour over traces of pencil on laid paper(Image size) 45 x 36.3 cm.; 17 3⁄4 x 14 1⁄4 inchesFrame size 61 x 51 cm.; 24 x 20 inchesProvenance: Martyn Gregory GalleryExhibited: Lupton’s Gallery, Eton College, 27 May – 10 September 2009, no. 19Born in Edinburgh, More settled in Rome in 1773 where he lived for twenty years, elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1784. He achieved a reputation which surpassed all other British artists then working in Italy. More was hailed as the English Claude and charged increasingly high prices for his work. He sent paintings back to the Royal Academy in London regularly for exhibition.Waterfalls were much painted by More, their inherent drama suiting the concept of the Sublime (see Patricia R. Andrew, Jacob More Biography and a Checklist of Works: The Volume of the Walpole Society, 1989/1990, Vol. 55 (1989/1990), pp. 105-196).The cascades at Tivoli were one of the best-known sites of Italy. J.R. Cozens also sketched there in 1778, and many visitors marvelled at the huge quantity of water which crashed onto the black rocks below. Neptune’s Grotto or Lair was situated below the cascades, its cluster of mossy rocks a highly picturesque spot. More chose to paint himself in front of the Grotto in his self-portrait, which hangs in the Vasari Corridor of the Uffizi in Florence, its acceptance further enhancing his reputation.

Signed l.l.: J Sturm, oil on paper laid down on canvas24.5 x 31.5 cm; 9 5/8 x 12 1⁄4 inchesExhibitedHazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, The Lure of Rome: Some Northern Artists in Italy in the Nineteenth Century, 31 October – 27 November 1979, cat. no. 66, pl. 36ProvenanceHazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London;Sir Jack & Lady Baer, Kensington, until 2022This partially unfinished view of the rooftops of Rome on a hot sunny day is the only known oil sketch by Jacques Sturm. It is a pleasing study of light and atmosphere in the city.The artist was the son of a wigmaker and initially trained to follow in his father's footsteps. However, he simultaneously attended drawing lessons given by Pierre Maisonnet (1783-1823), the drawing teacher at the Luxembourg Academy. When Jean-Baptiste Fresez (1800-1867) replaced Maisonnet in 1824 he recognised Sturm's talent, and recommended him to Eugène Jobard (1792-1861), the Belgian court lithographer and photographer.The Belgian Revolution of 1830 brought an end to Jobard's business; however, undeterred, Sturm began to engrave portraits himself for a living. In 1836 he painted his first works in oil, exhibiting for the first time two years later in Liège, and in 1839 he exhibited at the Brussels Triennale. Sturm moved briefly to Paris to study painting in oils but soon returned to Brussels.It was around this time that his health began to deteriorate and so, seeking a milder climate, he moved to Rome in 1842. He lived there until his death in January 1844. This painting is one of apparently few examples from this period, possibly the only one to havebeen published, and is a superb example of an artist experimenting with oils plein air at a time when such works were largely meant only for the artists' personal use and collections.The present work's subject, the Torre delle Milizie may have had special associations for this Luxembourgeois artist, as it was used by Emperor Henry VII, also known as Henry of Luxembourg, as his main bastion against the 1312 Guelph invasion.

Inscribed below: Villa Negroni, black chalk heightened with white on blue-grey laid paper, recto, with sketches of foliage, verso, inscribed in a later hand: by R. Wilson17 x 20 cm.; 6 5/8 x 7 7/8 inches, framed size 36 x 39 cm.; 14 1/2 x 15 1/4 inchesProvenanceJohn Bulloch Souter (1890-1971), painter, sculptor and printmaker, born in Aberdeen, thence by descent;By descent until 2025LiteraturePaul Spencer-Longhurst, with Kate Lowry and David Solkin, Richard Wilson Online: A Digital Catalogue Raisonné, 2014, no. D432 (recto) and D423 (verso)This previously unrecorded drawing has been examined by Dr Paul Spencer-Longhurst and has been added to the online catalogue raisonné of the artist.The drawing dates from c. 1753-1754 and is similar in format to another drawing of the same subject in the Stuart Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.In the late 16th century Pope Sixtus V (1521-1590), while still a cardinal, bought a large estate and villa in the northern part of Rome. In 1696 it was sold to Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Negroni and became known as Villa Negroni. It was demolished in the 19th century.Wilson was the leading British landscapist of his age who elevated landscape painting from topography into an important genre. He started out as a portrait painter but his formative years in Italy, from 1750 - 1757 during which he met contemporary artists such as Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) caused him to change.He returned to London and set up a studio in fashionable Covent Garden. Wilson was a founder member of the Society of Artists in 1761 and the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768 and exhibited in both places regularly. His final years saw his work fall from favour and, badly affected by heavy drinking, he retired to Wales.John Bulloch Souter (1890 – 1972) the Scottish artist won the Burne Travelling Scholarship and as a student made a continental tour funded by the Scottish Education Department when he visited European collections and presumably developed a taste for Old Masters. He is best known for his Jazz Age paintings.