1740s Landscape Paintings

Provenance: • Bought from Sicart in Lyon by the Marquis de Chennevières (1820 - 1899) - Chennevières Collection (stamped lower left - Lugt 2072) • Inscribed on the back of the mount "Salle 10/Delestre, 27 February 1899” • Sold in Paris at the Hôtel Drouot during the second Chennevières sale (4 to 7 April 1900, n°44) as François Boucher - number 44 (sold for 18 francs to Roblin) • Sold in Paris at the Hôtel Drouot, 4 and 5 March 1901, n°12 as François Boucher Bibliography: this drawing is cited by Chennevières in "Une collection de dessins d'artistes français" (chapter XVIII, page 24-25) and is number 1033 of the Catalogue de la Collection Chennevières compiled by Louis-Antoine Prat with the collaboration of Laurence Lhinares. This well-documented drawing was given to Boucher by the Marquis de Chennevières, one of the most important collectors of drawings at the end of the 19th century. While the landscape is reminiscent of Boucher's other landscape drawings, our drawing was probably modified at a later stage by the addition of the two figures in the right foreground and by the slight enhancement of the horizon line behind them. 1. François Boucher, the master of French rocaille The extraordinary career of Francois Boucher was unmatched by his contemporaries in versatility, consistency, and output. For many, particularly the writers and collectors who led the revival of interest in the French rococo during the last century, his sensuous beauties and plump cupids represent the French eighteenth century at its most typical. His facility with the brush, even when betraying the occasional superficiality of his art, enabled him to master every aspect of painting – history and mythology, portraiture, landscape, ordinary life and, as part of larger compositions, even still life. He had been trained as an engraver, and the skills of a draftsman, which he imbued in the studio of Jean-Francois Cars (1661 – 1738), stood him in good stead throughout his career; his delightful drawings are one of the most sought-after aspects of his oeuvre. As a student of Francois Lemoyne (1688 - 1737), he mastered the art of composition. The four years he spent in Italy, from 1727-1731, educated him in the works of the masters, classics, and history, that his modest upbringing had denied him. On his return to Paris in 1734, he gained full membership of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture with his splendid Rinaldo and Armida (Paris, Musée du Louvre). Although, throughout his career, he occasionally painted subjects taken from the Bible, and would always have considered himself first as a history painter, his own repertoire of heroines, seductresses, flirtatious peasant girls and erotic beauties was better suited to a lighter, more decorative subject matter. His mastery of technique and composition enabled him to move from large scale...

Studio of Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Il CANALETTO (Venice 1697 – 1768) An Architectural Capriccio with figures amongst ruins oil on canvas 88 x 92 cm. (34⅝ x 36¼ in.) Provenan...

Very fine 18th century oil painting on canvas, depicting the famous 'Capture of Porto Bello', on the 21st November, 1739. The painting itself was painted circa 1740 and is from the studio of Samuel Scott (London 1703-1772 Bath). Painted with exceptional quality and intricate detailing, capturing not only superb maritime detailing to the ships, but the artist has caught the atmosphere and drama of this important and historical naval engagement. The capture of Porto Bello (properly Puerto Bello) was part of a campaign known as 'The War of Jenkins' Ear', which was fought against Spain in the West Indian colonies and was in effect an early stage of the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-48. When Robert Jenkins, a merchant sea captain, had his ear cut off by a Spanish officer at Havana in 1731 it led to calls in Parliament for war with Spain. During a House of Commons debate in the summer of 1739, Captain Edward Vernon claimed he could take the Spanish town of Porto Bello - a source of Spanish depredation on British shipping on the north side of the Isthmus of Darien between Columbia and Panama - with only six ships of the line. He was promoted to vice-admiral and given the six ships so that he could carry out his promise. These were the 'Burford', Vernon's flagship, and the 'Hampton Court', both of 70 guns; the 'Worcester', 'Strafford' and 'Princess Louisa', all of 60 guns, and the 'Norwich', 50 guns. Vernon's squadron sighted Porto Bello on the night of 20 November 1739. The main obstacle to overcome was the Iron Castle, or 'Castillo de Ferro', at the northern entrance to the harbour, which they attacked at 2.00 p.m. on 21 November and a ferocious battle ensued. When the enemy fire gradually lessened, Vernon signalled for his manned boats to land beneath the walls of the castle. On the morning of 22 November the Spanish governor, Don Francisco Martinez de Retez, sent a flag of truce and accepted the Vice-Admiral's terms of surrender. Public money found in the garrison was distributed by Vernon among his men and the fortifications were then demolished. The surrender terms stated that Vernon received shipping and ten thousand dollars from the treasury as well as brass ordnance. He was also successful in demanding from Panama the release of some South Sea Company men who were imprisoned there. The present composition can be compared with the larger version currently housed in the National Maritime Gallery at Greenwich, London, which is an autograph work by Samuel Scott. In the representation of the event, with its distorted perspective, draws on the tradition of bird's-eye-view, 17th-century topographical landscape painting. Scott belonged to the first generation of British marine painters, who worked in the tradition of the van de Veldes and the other Dutch artists who came to practice in London from the 1670s. His reputation chiefly rests on his topographical views of London but he was a very good marine painter, who accepted commissions like this and whose artistic and social skills eclipsed - at least in business terms - those of his slightly earlier contemporary Peter Monamy. He was notably averse to travelling by sea himself but produced many small drawings and watercolours to be incorporated later as details into his oils, such as men rowing...