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Lot Essay
In 1789 the neoclassical painter Carlo Labruzzi was commissioned to produce a series of drawings depicting antique sites and landscapes along the Via Appia. Sir Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead (1758-1838), noted British antiquarian and heir to an important banking family, was the patron of this enterprise and accompanied the artist on the trip along the ancient Roman road from Rome to Benevento.
Hoare produced a full written description of the journey (see R. Colt Hoare, Journey from Rome to Beneventum on the Appian Way, in Recollections abroad, during the years 1788, 1789, 1790, Bath, 1815, pp. 259-331) and Labruzzi documented in lavish watercolors the many sites and views encountered along the way. Three groups of drawings with scenes from the Via Appia by Labruzzi are known: a series of sixty-seven watercolors are in the British Museum (1955,1210.10.19), these were the drawings made by Labruzzi during the trip. More watercolors from this first group, including the present sheet and the one in the following lot, were dispersed on the art market in 1960 (Carlo Labruzzi (1748-1817), op. cit.). A second group of one-hundred-eighty-seven drawings, which once belonged to Labruzzi’s grandson, is now in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and a series of two-hundred-twenty-six monochrome drawings in pen and sepia ink, mounted in five elegant albums, is in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (inv. Vat lat. 14934; see A. de Rosa, B. Jatta, La Via Appia nei disegni di Carlo Labruzzi alla Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, 2013). The latter was the final and more finished version meant to be reproduced in engraving. Hoare’s intention was indeed to publish an account of the Via Appia illustrated by engravings, but only the first twenty-four plates were issued in Hoare’s lifetime. The first fascicule of twelve plates appeared in 1794 under the title Via Appia illustrate ab urbe Roma ad Capuam.
Hoare produced a full written description of the journey (see R. Colt Hoare, Journey from Rome to Beneventum on the Appian Way, in Recollections abroad, during the years 1788, 1789, 1790, Bath, 1815, pp. 259-331) and Labruzzi documented in lavish watercolors the many sites and views encountered along the way. Three groups of drawings with scenes from the Via Appia by Labruzzi are known: a series of sixty-seven watercolors are in the British Museum (1955,1210.10.19), these were the drawings made by Labruzzi during the trip. More watercolors from this first group, including the present sheet and the one in the following lot, were dispersed on the art market in 1960 (Carlo Labruzzi (1748-1817), op. cit.). A second group of one-hundred-eighty-seven drawings, which once belonged to Labruzzi’s grandson, is now in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and a series of two-hundred-twenty-six monochrome drawings in pen and sepia ink, mounted in five elegant albums, is in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (inv. Vat lat. 14934; see A. de Rosa, B. Jatta, La Via Appia nei disegni di Carlo Labruzzi alla Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, 2013). The latter was the final and more finished version meant to be reproduced in engraving. Hoare’s intention was indeed to publish an account of the Via Appia illustrated by engravings, but only the first twenty-four plates were issued in Hoare’s lifetime. The first fascicule of twelve plates appeared in 1794 under the title Via Appia illustrate ab urbe Roma ad Capuam.