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Giuseppe Zais, 'Landscape with a Ruined Tower', probably 1760-80

Key facts
Full title Landscape with a Ruined Tower
Artist Giuseppe Zais
Artist dates 1709 - 1784
Date made probably 1760-80
Medium and support oil on canvas
Dimensions 70.2 × 95.9 cm
Acquisition credit Bequeathed by the Misses Cohen as part of the John Samuel Collection, 1906
Inventory number NG2086
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
Landscape with a Ruined Tower
Giuseppe Zais
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Figures placed carefully across the landscape lead us through the painting, from the peasants resting by a path to the rider and his white horse, and on to those walking towards a ruined arch and tower. To the right, a cow herder and his animals rest by the river while two women on the far bank wash clothes. Thick, expressive brushstrokes describe the people and animals; highlighted by the sunlight, they stand out against areas of shade.

This picture was once thought to be by Francesco Zuccarelli, whose work Zais clearly studied. Zais spent most of his career in Venice and painted scenes inspired by the Italian countryside; his Landscape with a Group of Figures and Landscape with a Group of Figures Fishing are also in the National Gallery’s collection.

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More paintings by Giuseppe Zais

Landscape with a Group of Figures
Landscape with a Group of Figures
Giuseppe Zais
A group of smartly dressed men and women, accompanied by two dogs, talk among themselves. On the other side of the gently flowing river, peasants experience a very different life: they wash clothes and attend to cattle beside a rustic farmhouse. As a backdrop, this painting uses a rural village f...
Not on display
Landscape with a Group of Figures Fishing
Landscape with a Group of Figures Fishing
Giuseppe Zais
A lady dressed in colourful clothes and holding a fishing rod gazes merrily out of the picture. She is accompanied by a woman with a net and a man who picks up a basket of fish. Other men and women gather beside the meandering river, some casting and reeling in their fishing lines. In the distanc...
Not on display