Gaspar Van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (1652/3-1736)

An extensive Landscape with a Lake, a castle on an island in the background, near Bracciano (?) (recto); A Sketch of a Portico (verso)

Details

Gaspar Van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (1652/3-1736)
An extensive Landscape with a Lake, a castle on an island in the background, near Bracciano (?) (recto); A Sketch of a Portico (verso)
signed 'G:V:W:'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolour, bodycolour, upper right corner made up
184 x 357 mm.

Provenance

Giuseppe Bandinucci, according to an inscription 'Io Giuseppe Bandinucci ebbi.. ..172.[4 in Roma]' (verso).
B. Cavaceppi.
V. Pacetti.
P. Fatio (his mark, not in Lugt); N. Rauch, Geneva, 13-5 June 1960, lot 408, illustrated.
With Agnews, the Italian Scene, Drawings by Vanvitelli, London, 1961, no. 15.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, 21 May 1963, lot 114.
With H.M. Calmann.
With Alfred Brod Gallery.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, 4 December 1969, lot 119, (£800 to Heim Gallery).
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, 27 June 1974, lot 137 (£ 1,500 to Brod Gallery).

Literature

G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Rome, 1966, no. 40d, illustrated.
W. Vitzthum, Review of G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, The Burlington Magazine, CIX, 1967, p. 317.
G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, edited by L. Laureati and L. Trezzani, Milan, 1996, no. D147, illustrated.

Lot Essay

Part of a series, two of which were sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1990, lots 45-6. The series was acquired in Rome in 1721 by Giuseppe Bandinucci directly from the artist: the first drawing sold in 1990 is signed in the same way as the present sheet and bears the inscription 'Comprato in Roma di Gasparo il 1721 di mi Giuse Bandinucci' on the verso. All three drawings are of the same size and technique and depict the same site from another angle. It was tentatively identified by Giuliano Briganti as Bracciano, a small town north west of Rome near the lake of the same name, and the only way from Rome to Civitavecchia.
Claude executed a drawing of the Lake Bracciano in circa 1638, now in a private collection, M. Roethlisberger, Claude Lorrain, The Drawings, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968, no. 288, illustrated,

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