4th Apr, 2023 10:00
Old Master, British and European Art
277
John Brett ARA (1831-1902)
John Brett ARA (1831-1902)
Distant Capri
signed and dated 'John Brett/1897' l.l., oil on canvas
38 x 76cm
Provenance: A H Harman, 2 June 1897 for 100 guineas;
N Mitchell;
anonymous sale, Christie's, 6 March 1939 (lot 147) as Loch Fyne - unsold;
anonymous sale, Sotheby's 12 March 1997 (lot 21) as Loch Fyne - sold for £1725;
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1897 (740).
Literature: ‘Magazine of Art’, 1897, ill. p.155;
C Payne ‘John Brett: Pre-Raphaelite Landscape Painter’ (Yale UP 2010), p.240 (Catalogue no 1473).
In his last years, when he travelled rarely, John Brett frequently returned to subjects he had painted many years earlier, using material from his 72 sketchbooks (now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich) to provide inspiration. In the present instance, the source was a drawing dated Sep 20 63 in sketchbook 13, which contains sketches made that year in the Bay of Naples. This drawing, clearly done from a boat, depicts the coast from a point a few miles south of the town of Massa Lubrense, looking south-west towards Campanella Point, with the Isle of Capri in the far distance. The prominent architectural feature in the left foreground is probably the Torre San Lorenzo. This drawing formed the starting point for an important finished watercolour dated 1864-6, to which Brett gave the title 'Casa di Castella' (currently unlocated). Thirty years later he revisited the same source in order to create the present oil picture. It follows the design of the earlier watercolour fairly closely, but the vista towards Capri is of far greater extent, and the work is generally much richer in detail. In the entry for January 17 1897 in his Studio Log (Tate Archive) Brett wrote 'On New Year's Day I began a little picture 30 x 15 inches, Distant Capri', and he later recorded its sale at the Royal Academy that summer.
Our thanks to Charles Brett for his assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.
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Sold for £5,000
Condition Report
overall: 51 x 89.5cm
The canvas is unlined. There is some impasto, in generally good condition with no signs of damage or restoration.
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Auction: Old Master, British and European Art, 4th Apr, 2023
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