Carlo Bossoli (Davesco 1815-1884 Turin)

The Neptune fountain and the Paseo del Prado, Madrid

Details

Carlo Bossoli (Davesco 1815-1884 Turin)
The Neptune fountain and the Paseo del Prado, Madrid
signed 'C. Bossoli.'
watercolour and bodycolour
10 x 18 in. (25.4 x 45.7 cm.)

Provenance

The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, presented by her to a British diplomat circa 1860, and by descent until 1990.
Anonymous sale; London, Sotheby’s, 28 November 1990, lot 8.
Anonymous sale; London, Sotheby’s, 14 June 1995, lot 76.
Anonymous sale; London, Sotheby’s, 12 June 1996, lot 132.
with Guillermo de Osma Galería, La Epanã Romántica 1830-1860, Madrid, 1997, no. 39.
Private collection, Spain.
with Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, An exhibition of Master Drawings, New York, 2011, no. 22.

Brought to you by

Iona Ballantyne

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Lot Essay

Bossoli travelled to Spain and Morocco in 1851 and the present drawing was most likely made during this trip. Another view of Madrid, showing the Plaza Mayor, was probably made then too. That sheet, together with two further drawings, shares the same Russian provenance as the present drawing. All were in the collection of the wife of Tsar Nicholas I, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (1798-1860). The four drawings were presented to a British diplomat shortly before or after the Dowager Empress's death in 1860, and remained in the his family for the next 130 years until they were sold at auction in 1990 (Sotheby's, 28 November 1990, lots 5-8).

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