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Lot Essay
The highly detailed 'Pre-Raphaelite' finish and bright palette of this watercolour, seen in the work of many Ruskin pupils, led to it being misattributed to John Brett for many years.
We are grateful to Allan Staley, of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and author of The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, Oxford, 1973, for correctly identifying this watercolour.
The distant terrain is recognisably the same as that depicted in John Brett's watercolour Near Sorrento of 1863, in The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (see Burlington Magazine, CXV, 1972, p. 89, fig. 24). From 1859 White regularly exhibited views from the vicinities of Capri, Sorrento and Amalfi at the British Institution and the Royal Academy. He lived in Capri from 1893. White painted genre pictures and architectural subjects but was best known for his Italian views.
White was born in London in 1833 and died in Cracovia in 1907. He was the son of a politician James White who was well known in London circles and came into contact with the likes of Rossetti. He studied in Paris and came under the influence of Millet.
We are grateful to Allan Staley, of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and author of The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, Oxford, 1973, for correctly identifying this watercolour.
The distant terrain is recognisably the same as that depicted in John Brett's watercolour Near Sorrento of 1863, in The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (see Burlington Magazine, CXV, 1972, p. 89, fig. 24). From 1859 White regularly exhibited views from the vicinities of Capri, Sorrento and Amalfi at the British Institution and the Royal Academy. He lived in Capri from 1893. White painted genre pictures and architectural subjects but was best known for his Italian views.
White was born in London in 1833 and died in Cracovia in 1907. He was the son of a politician James White who was well known in London circles and came into contact with the likes of Rossetti. He studied in Paris and came under the influence of Millet.