Lot Essay
While there is no reference to Zuccarelli in the 3rd Earl's papers at Mount Stuart, or in his bank account at Coutts, it is clear that he was a significant patron of the artist. In addition to the present canvasses and two smaller pairs recorded in the 1797-9 Luton inventory, Bute owned two superlative large landscapes, as well as four smaller canvasses, including the present example, which were stated in 1817 to have been 'procured' for him by Consul Smith (Gentleman's Magazine, CXXXVII, 2, 1817, p. 6); one of these was engraved by Samuel Middiman in 1804. There is no evidence that Bute sought pictures from or through Consul Smith, or indeed of any direct connection between the two until after the completion in 1763 of the negotiations for the sale of Smith's collection - which included a major series of works by the artist - to King George III. Zuccarelli, who had been in England from 1752 until 1762, returned in about 1764-5, remaining here until 1771. That Bute's connection with him dates from the early years of his second visit seems possible, not least because the painter was also employed by Sir James Lowther, Bt., later 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1730-1802), who in 1761 married the Butes' daughter Mary, and is known to have bought pictures on the advice of his father-in-law. For Lowther acquired a total of twelve pictures by Zuccarelli, ranging from characteristic Italian landscapes, including four overdoors said to have been painted in Venice, to an outsize View of the Lakes (London, Private Collection), which may have been loosely based on an amateur sketch, very possibly one by Lady Mary Lowther. In an inventory of 1802, two of Zuccarelli's views of Lowther itself, also doubtless based on drawings by Lady Mary, are said to have been painted with the assistance of his - otherwise apparently unrecorded - 'nephew'.