Watercolor over graphite on medium, moderately textured, cream laid paper, laid down on original mount
Dimensions:
Sheet: 12 3/16 x 17 1/2 inches (31 x 44.5 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower center: "Isola Madre Lago di Maggiore Lago [...]"; in graphite, lower right: "D25761"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1850
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
clouds | landscape | fog | mountain | island | buildings | lake
Associated Places:
Italy | Lago Maggiore
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)Edward Lear and the Art of Travel (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-09-20 - 2001-01-14)Gentle, Rural and Sublime - English Landscape Paintings and Watercolors, 1750-1850 (Denver Art Museum, 1993-12-11 - 1994-02-06)English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17)
Publications:
Katharine Baetjer, Glorious nature : British landscape painting, 1750-1850, , Zwemmer publisher, London, 1993, pp. 148-149, no. 33, ND1354.4 B34 1993 (YCBA)Graham Reynolds, English Landscape 1630-1850, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 41-42, no. 64, pl. XI, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA)Simon Schama, The Yale Centre for British Art, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, , May 20, 1977, p. 620, TLS Historical ArchiveScott Wilcox, Edward Lear and the art of travel, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2000, pp. 138-139, no. 157, NJ18 L455 W55 2000 (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 42-44, no. 15, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
John “Warwick” Smith, one of the great innovators in late eighteenth-century watercolor, helped to move the art away from colored drawing towards a more painterly use of the medium. He spent the period between 1775 and 1781 in Italy thanks to the patronage of the 2nd Earl of Warwick. On his return he presented the Earl with this watercolor as part of a large series that was originally kept in a portfolio at Warwick Castle. The entire composition rests on a careful control of tone, using subtle gray and blue washes to suggest light, atmosphere, and depth. The time of day is presumably early morning with a dawn mist spreading over the water. To catch these atmospheric conditions, Smith has exploited the full potential of watercolor’s translucency. He has even left a small band of entirely untouched white paper between the mountains and the water to suggest mist rising off the lake’s surface. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)