Lot Essay
In a German carved and gilded frame, probably the original
Another 'Rocky Landscape with a Waterfall', dated 1752, is in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (P. Michel, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich und die Problematik des Eklektizismus, 1984, pp. 139 and 319, pl. XI). While Michel (idem, pp. 139-9) points out the Italian sources of inspiration for that picture, notably in the work of Salvator Rosa, the present painting is more French in feeling.
John Crewe, who probably purchased the present painting, was a notable patron and collector. On the grand tour in 1760 he sat to Pompeo Batoni in Rome (A.M. Clark, Pompeo Bation, ed. E.P. Bowron, 1985, p. 286, no. 248, pl. 229; sold Christie's, London, Nov. 17, 1989, lot 56A), and in Venice in the same year acquired from Canaletto the magnificent view of Whitehall in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. In the 1770s he commissioned from Sir Joshua Reynolds the famous pair of portraits of his children 'Master Crewe as Henry VIII' and 'Miss Crewe' (exhibited, London, Royal Academy, Reynolds, Jan. 16-Mar. 21, 1986, nos. 97 and 98)
Another 'Rocky Landscape with a Waterfall', dated 1752, is in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (P. Michel, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich und die Problematik des Eklektizismus, 1984, pp. 139 and 319, pl. XI). While Michel (idem, pp. 139-9) points out the Italian sources of inspiration for that picture, notably in the work of Salvator Rosa, the present painting is more French in feeling.
John Crewe, who probably purchased the present painting, was a notable patron and collector. On the grand tour in 1760 he sat to Pompeo Batoni in Rome (A.M. Clark, Pompeo Bation, ed. E.P. Bowron, 1985, p. 286, no. 248, pl. 229; sold Christie's, London, Nov. 17, 1989, lot 56A), and in Venice in the same year acquired from Canaletto the magnificent view of Whitehall in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch. In the 1770s he commissioned from Sir Joshua Reynolds the famous pair of portraits of his children 'Master Crewe as Henry VIII' and 'Miss Crewe' (exhibited, London, Royal Academy, Reynolds, Jan. 16-Mar. 21, 1986, nos. 97 and 98)