Lot Essay
Related to one of the capricci in the Music Room at Harewood House, Yorkshire painted for the patron of the house Edwin Lascelles, E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Paintings in England 1537-1837, London, 1962, no. 149. The painting differs from the drawing in a number of ways; including the replacement of the domed ceiling with a clouded sky, the arched entrance is suppressed in favour of a niche with a classical sculpture and the dress of the figures is no longer Oriental. The architectural setting and the general disposition of the figures was, however, broadly retained. One of the four paintings is dated 1771