The Chaia, Naples

This is one of a group of watercolours by Smith sold at Sotheby's, 10 July 1980, lots 34-42, said to have been purchased circa 1820 by an ancestor of the anonymous vendor. It would appear to date from the artist's tour of Italy in the late 1770's. Another version of the same view, dated 1783, but with a different disposition of figures, was sold at Sotheby's London, 22 October 1970, lot 161. (340 to Casella Libraria).

Smith later exhibited a 'View in the Chaija [sic] at Naples, including Pizzi Falcone, the Castelo del 'Oro and the distant shores of Sorrento across the Bay', at the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1822, no.68