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View of Rome with Saint Peter’s and Castel Sant’Angelo

Maker

(artist)
1754-1759

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1758

Medium

graphite, pen and grey ink, grey wash and watercolour on laid paper, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 36.7 cm
Width: 52 cm

Accession Number

D.2020.ST.14

Mode of Acquisition

The Spooner Charitable Trust, gift, 2020

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Arriving in Italy in 1957, Jonathan Skelton was among the earliest British watercolourists to depict the sites associated with the Grand Tour. In this work, Skelton uses watercolour to create delicate variations of light and shade. The darker foreground lends depth tot he composition, framing the river Tiber, Saint Peter's Basilica, and Castel Sant'Angelo in a quintessential depiction of Rome. Skelton painted in the open air, applying watercolour directly to paper. This method marked an important step in the development of English watercolour painting.

Notes

Skelton was one of the British watercolour artists to visit Italy. Skelton was sent to Rome by his patron William Herring of Croydon arriving in December 1757. Unusually his letters to his patron survive and were published by Brinsley Ford in 1960. They reveal his working methods as well as the difficulty of finding patrons in Rome at the time. Another version of this watercolour, dated May 1758 on the reverse, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It includes a flag over the Castel St Angelo and has differing figures.

Provenance

Mrs G. Charlton; her sale, Sotheby’s (London), 19th March 1981, lot 156; Morton Morris & Co. (London); purchased there by Eustace Gibbs, 3rd Baron Wraxall (1929-2017), 1984; sale of his estate, Dreweatts 1759 (Newbury, Berkshire), 1 May 2019; purchased there by Guy Peppiatt Fine Art (London); purchased there by the Spooner Charitable Trust, 2020; Gift of the Spooner Charitable Trust 2020

Exhibition History

From the Baroque to Today: New Acquisitions of Works on Paper, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 23/02/2024-27/05/2024

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermarks: none in the drawing sheet. Backing sheet (the papers have been pressed together so firmly that the impression of the watermark shows in raking light on the drawing sheet, but it is in the paper of the backing sheet): centre: Strasburg lily above cursive “W” (not in Heawood or Churchill, but likely a Whatman mark).

Inscription: none.

Collector's mark: none.

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