Friday, July 20, 2018

Roman Campagna in Nineteenth-Century Watercolors

Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
Tomb in the Campagna
ca. 1845-48
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

"In the present drawing, an architectural ruin monumentally fills the composition, which is set in the Roman Campagna.  Following his graduation with honors in the Mathematical Tripos from Trinity College, Cambridge, Brabazon rejected reading law at the Inns of Court in favor of becoming an artist.  He subsequently spent three years in Rome training, and it is possible that the present sheet dates to that time.  The drawing is signed with Brabazon's conventional inscription H.B.B.  Sir Frederick Wedmore summarized Brabazon's career as an aristocratic and amateur artist by quipping that Brabazon was "a country gentleman who at seventy years old made his debut as a professional artist and straightway became famous."

– curator's notes from the Morgan Library, New York

Hercules Brabazon Brabazon
Distant view of Rome from the Campagna
ca. 1845-48
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

Jean-Achille Benouville
Landscape in the Roman Campagna
1859
watercolor
Morgan Library, New York

John Francis Campbell
Copy drawing of a View in the Roman Campagna
1841
watercolor
National Galleries of Scotland

John Francis Campbell
Copy drawing of a View in the Roman Campagna
1841
watercolor
National Galleries of Scotland

George Smith
Temple of Bacchus and the church of St Agnese, Campagna di Roma
1832
watercolor
British Museum

"This drawing was one of a group from a sketchbook the artist left or gave to Richard Redgrave and which records his travels around Italy.  He had been brought up by the uncle of Redgrave, with whom he sketched at the British Museum and enrolled at the Royal Academy in 1826.  Smith won the gold medal for mythological composition three years later and in 1830 went to Rome to study.  He lived in Palazzo Poniatowski and struggled to make a living as a drawing master between travelling and studying in Venice and Naples.  The present work was made in the company of the Welsh artist Penry Williams who had settled in Rome in 1826.  Smith wrote to Redgrave in 1833 that his sketches were, "more valuable to myself than I believe they will be to other persons."  

 – curator's notes from the British Museum

Giovanni Costa
Ancient Tress in the Roman Campagna
ca. 1850-60
watercolor
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Johann Adam Klein
Tivoli and the Roman Campagna
1820
watercolor
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Joseph Mallord William Turner
Moonlight over the Campagna
1819
watercolor, gouache
Tate Gallery

"Like many drawings within this sketchbook, the composition has been executed over a washed grey background, although in this instance the artist has extensively worked up the design with further watercolor and gouache.  Turner varies his application of paint considerably, ranging from wet on wet for the touches of pink in the top right-hand corner of the sky, to drier patches of gouache creating the textured areas of foliage in the foreground.  He has also created pale highlights by scratching through the paint to reveal the paper beneath, principally to describe the white disc above the horizon and the reflected light cast on the water beneath.  This has been described as 'Moonrise', although it could equally represent the rising or setting sun.  There is no evidence of under-drawing and despite the naturalistic appearance of the scene it is likely that Turner painted it from memory or imagination."

– curator's notes from the Tate Gallery

Bartolomeo Pinelli
Peasant Family in the Campagna
1807-08
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Bartolomeo Pinelli
Two Shepherds in the Campagna
1807-08
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Bartolomeo Pinelli
Woman and Boy passing a Gentleman seated among Ruins in the Campagna
1807
watercolor
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean-Charles-Joseph Rémond
View of the Roman Campagna
ca. 1858-71
watercolor
British Museum

Franz Albert Venus
Campagna Landscape on the Via Flaminia
1869
watercolor
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"A talented landscapist, Venus rendered this panoramic view which he saw on the Via Flaminia, the ancient road that linked Rome to northern Italy, cutting its way across the mountainous central region of the peninsula.  Ruins of Roman tower tombs, visible in the distance, are bathed in the soft, wintry light.  Venus executed this watercolor on the spot, applying the medium with wonderful looseness and coloristic clarity.  The composition is structured horizontally through contrasting tonal areas, and the whole conveys the artist's fascination with the unique atmosphere of the countryside."

– curator's notes from the Getty Museum