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Lot Essay
Between June and September 1858, Brett resided at the Chteau St. Pierre in the Val d'Aosta. It was here that he worked on and completed his Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece, the oil painting Val d'Aosta. The view of the present watercolour, executed several weeks before Brett begun work on the oil, looks towards the snow covered peaks of La Grivola, over the Val di Cogne, in the opposite direction of the Val d'Aosta (see Assessovato Regionale Turismo Aosta, Valle d'Aosta, Novava, 1968, p. 35).
The present watercolour is different in its style and scale to Val d'Aosta and the related watercolour (see below). Unlike the Val d'Aosta, which revels in a conscious super-realism and a minute attention to detail, the present watercolour has an exciting freedom. The trees in the foreground are loosely brushed in and the mountains rise to a dusky haze. Brett's intention was to appeal to the Romantic imagination and experiment with the effects of light and colour. Moreover, the present watercolour reveals Brett's love of his surroundings. The present watercolour contends Ruskin's assertion, articulated after seeing the Val d'Aosta at the Royal Academy in 1859, 'I cannot find from it (Val d'Aosta) that the painter loved or feared, anything in all that wonderful piece of the world. There seems to be no awe of the mountains there...'.
A watercolour study for the oil painting Val d'Aosta, sold at Christie's London, 14 June 1991, lot 18, (15,950) and a further alpine view, executed in 1856 and measuring 9 x 14 in., was sold at Christie's London, 27 October 1987, lot 163, (33,000).
The present watercolour is different in its style and scale to Val d'Aosta and the related watercolour (see below). Unlike the Val d'Aosta, which revels in a conscious super-realism and a minute attention to detail, the present watercolour has an exciting freedom. The trees in the foreground are loosely brushed in and the mountains rise to a dusky haze. Brett's intention was to appeal to the Romantic imagination and experiment with the effects of light and colour. Moreover, the present watercolour reveals Brett's love of his surroundings. The present watercolour contends Ruskin's assertion, articulated after seeing the Val d'Aosta at the Royal Academy in 1859, 'I cannot find from it (Val d'Aosta) that the painter loved or feared, anything in all that wonderful piece of the world. There seems to be no awe of the mountains there...'.
A watercolour study for the oil painting Val d'Aosta, sold at Christie's London, 14 June 1991, lot 18, (15,950) and a further alpine view, executed in 1856 and measuring 9 x 14 in., was sold at Christie's London, 27 October 1987, lot 163, (33,000).