English Landscape Capriccio with a Column

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English Landscape Capriccio with a Column: Canaletto

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Canaletto Oil Painting - English Landscape Capriccio with a Column

Keywords: English, Landscape, Capriccio, Column

Work Overview: English Landscape Capriccio with a Column
Canaletto
Date: c.1754
Style: Rococo
Genre: capriccio
oil on canvas
134 x 106.4 cm (52 3/4 x 41 7/8 in.)

This is another fine example of the type of capricci Canaletto executed during his sojourn in England. It is one of a group of paintings known as the 'Lovelace Canalettos', so-called because they were sold in 1937 by the Earl of Lovelace. He had inherited them from Lord King who probably acquired them in the eighteenth century for his home, Ockham Place in Surrey.

This work is an ingenious combination of Italian and English influences - a fitting project for Canaletto to work on prior to his final return to Venice, after having spent nearly a decade in England. The general disposition of the hilly landscape and the vegetation appear English, and a bridge inspired by Westminster Bridge has been placed in the middle distance. The Corinthian column, however, decorated with an escutcheon and surmounted by a statue of a saint, and the triumphal arch, are clearly Italianate. The juxtaposition of these two sets of references cleverly and subtly encourages you to question what is real, and what is imagined.

The support is a plain-weave, medium-weight fabric. The thread count differs slightly from the support of the pendant (1964.2.2) and confirms that different rolls of fabric were used for each. A thin white ground is visible at the edges of the paint surface. The paint was applied wet-over-dry with only a few small passages painted wet-in-wet. The composition was built up from the middle ground, with each compositional detail completed before the addition of subsequent pictorial elements above. The column as well as the figures were painted over the fully developed landscape. The figures were sketched quickly with a dark wash that was allowed to dry before color was added over it using a thicker, opaque paint, with a lighter hue for the highlighted areas and a darker tone of the same color for the shadows. The highlights were applied more thickly. Some red pigment was added to create a warmer tonality in the sky. X-radiographs reveal successive minor changes to the gabled top of the small architectural element at the base of the column.

The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping along the vertical edges suggests that the painting retains its original dimensions. Small losses are located in the upper-left corner, and slight abrasion is evident in the thinly painted areas of the distant landscape. The varnish is slightly yellowed. The painting, which was lined at an unknown date, has not been treated since acquisition.

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Canaletto

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