George Augustus Wallis, 'View of the Roman Campagna', 1794-1806
About the work
Overview
In 1788, one of George Augustus Wallis’s many patrons, Lord Warwick, financed a trip to Italy. Around that year he arrived in Naples, where he stayed for a number of years, before moving to Rome in 1795. He was nicknamed ‘le Poussin anglais’ by his fellow English artists, and his future son-in-law, the neo-classical painter Gottlieb Schick (1776 -1812) described him as ‘probably the foremost landscape painter in Rome’.
It is only since the late 1990s that the sketches made by Wallis in the Roman Campagna have come to light. This particular example is an essay in atmosphere. The countryside to the south of Rome is sombre and grey, a contrast to the sun-drenched landscape usually depicted in such studies. At the top, pale blue sky is glimpsed behind a bank of rolling grey clouds and an area of pink at the right hints at a sunset. But the chief subject is the driving rain, rendered in diagonal strokes of grey and increasing in intensity towards the left.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- View of the Roman Campagna
- Artist
- George Augustus Wallis
- Artist dates
- 1761 - 1847
- Date made
- 1794-1806
- Medium and support
- oil on paper, mounted on canvas
- Dimensions
- 14 × 23.1 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by the Lishawa family, 2018
- Inventory number
- NG6675
- Location
- Room 39
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
Additional information
This painting is included in a list of works with incomplete provenance from 1933–1945; for more information see Whereabouts of paintings 1933–1945.
Text extracted from the National Gallery’s Annual Report, ‘The National Gallery: Review of the Year, April 2018 – March 2019’.
Bibliography
-
2019National Gallery, The National Gallery: Review of the Year, April 2018 - March 2019, London 2019
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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