Thomas Patch

Captain Bertram Currie (1899–1959), Dingley Hall, Market Harborough;

By whom sold London, Christie's, 27 March 1953, lot 60 to Agnews, for 400 guineas;

With Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1954;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 18 April 1996, lot 35, for £177,500;

Where acquired by the present owner.

E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th century Painters in Oils and Crayons, London 1981, p. 268 reproduced;

M. Gregori (ed.), Firenze nella pittura e nel disegno dal Trecento el Settecento, Cinisello Balsamo 1994, pp. 225–27 and 276, no. 56, reproduced p. 231, fig. 294;

M. Chiarini and A. Marabottini, Firenze e la sua immagine, cinque secoli di vedutismo, exh. cat., Forte di Belvedere, Florence, 1994, pp. 164 and 166, no. 100, reproduced.

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, Exhibition of Pictures by Old Masters, August–September 1954, no. 6;

Florence, Forte di Belvedere, Firenze e la sua immagine, cinque secoli di vedutismo, 29 June 1994 – 30 September 1994, no. 100.

This View of the Arno with the Ponte Santa Trinità is one of the most iconic and popular Florentine scenes by the British artist Thomas Patch. Both a painter of landscapes and caricatures, Patch is celebrated as one of the quintessential artists of the eighteenth-century grand tour. His views of Florence, the artist's home for just shy of thirty years, were particularly prized amongst British aristocratic Milordi and remain popular with serious collectors of Italian views to this day.

The Artist

Hailing from Exeter in the south-west of England, Patch soon abandoned his youthful apprenticeship to an apothecary in pursuit of travel and drawing. By 1747 the artist had reached Rome where he lodged with fellow British artists, including, it is later said, Joshua Reynolds. His talents eventually earnt him a place in the studio of Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714–1789), who is presumed to have taught the artist skills in landscape painting although only a few of his Roman landscapes have been identified.¹ The artist's predilection for caricature earnt him the support and protection of visiting English noblemen in Italy, alongside his work as a painter of views.

Patch was eventually banished from the Papal City in October 1755 for reasons unknown. Many rumours circulated concerning the disgrazia of his departure, alongside 'his Tivoli girl' and 'his boy', adding fuel to John Parker's perception that 'Crazy he [Patch] always was'. Recent scholars have suggested the ambiguity of his banishment may have been due to the artist being a homosexual, acts considered a crime in eighteenth-century Italy.² Patch soon after up-rooted to Florence where he received the support and patronage of the city's British diplomat Sir Horace Mann (1706–1786), who described him as a 'genius' and that 'all his productions have merit'.³ His career in Florence continued to prosper, with the creation of many landscapes, caricatures and even studies of early Italian artworks which were transformed into prints for antiquarians and artists.⁴

The Painting

This particular view of Florence was the artist's most popular and successful. Taken from the embankment of the Lungarno Guicciardini, the painting offers an atmospheric rendering of some of the city's finest buildings, including Brunelleschi's Dome of the Cathedral, the Arnolfo Tower, the Ponte Santa Trinità in the foreground and the Ponte Vecchio visible in the background. This particular area of the city would have been well-known to artists and British grand tourists, as it is located a stone's throw away from the Palazzo Manetti, the Florentine home of Sir Horace Mann. As Mann later recounted himself, 'though he [Patch] does not live at my house, he is never out of it a whole day.'⁵

The importance of this view is further strengthened by its appearance in at least two caricatures by the artist. The first depicts a group of grand tourists gathering around a harpsichord, an oil recorded in the Roxburghe collection (fig. 1). This very view also appears out of an open window the Patch's comedic portrait of the 3rd Duke of Roxburghe and the dwarf Miss Mendes.⁶ The allusion here seems to be that Roxburghe's accommodation, or Patch's studio, looked onto this very view of Florence. A night-view of the Arno, showing fireworks, was captured in the background of a caricature of Horace Mann's home (now at the Yale Center for British Art). This night scene is one of the same compositions that was purchased by George III in 1764 is still preserved in the Royal Collection.⁷

Several versions of the view have been recorded.⁸ Each variation contains a varying number of figures, boats and cloud formations. Compared to all other known versions, this canvas is the only one to feature a prominent Habsburg-Lorraine flag on the boats, a subtle nod perhaps to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany during the period. It also contains the most figures gathered busily on the Lungarno Guicciardini to the right. The dark and moody clouds too seem to be a particular feature of this canvas. Patch's views are likely to have been based on an engraving by Vincenzo Franceschini (act. 1695–1770) after Giuseppe Zocchi (1711/7–1767) (fig. 2), although, the application of paint, colouring and figures are all Patch's work. It is possible that this view once formed part of a pair. When this painting was sold from the collection of Captain Bertram Currie in 1953 as lot 61, an identically sized view of Florence, with the Ponte alla Carraia and the Corsini Palace, was sold in consecutive lots.⁹

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¹ One such example, showing the Falls of Tivoli and dated to 1750–54, is preserved in the Yale Center for British Art. https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:144

² G.E. Haggerty, 'Queering Horace Walpole,' in Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, 46, no. 3, 2006, pp. 552–53.

³ W.S. Lewis (ed.), Horace Walpole's Correspondence, New Haven 1967, vol. 23, p. 275.

⁴ See S. Smiles, 'Thomas Patch (1725–1782) and early Italian art', in The British Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2013), pp. 50–58.

⁵ Lewis (ed.) 1967, p. 275.

⁶ A photograph in the Witt Library records this oil on canvas measuring 24 3/4 x 38 1/2 in. as preserved in the collection of Mary, Countess of Ilchester, London.

⁷ O. Millar, The Later Georgian Pictures in The Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London 1969, p. 89, no. 979. 

⁸ For a complete list see F.J.B. Watson, 'Thomas Patch: Notes on his Life; together with a Catalogue of his know Works', in The Walpole Society, vol. 28, 1940, no. 100, pp. 37–38, nos 15–22. Other notable examples are recorded in the Museo Topografico Fiorentino, Florence, and Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Firenze. Several examples have appeared on the art market in the past century, including those recorded with Colnaghi in 1976; another sold at Christie's, London, 29 May 1921, no. 142; and another formerly in the collection of the Countess of Ilchester, sold Sotheby's, London, 19 November 1986, no. 82. The most recent example sold Christie's, New York, 14 April 2016, lot 155 for $100,000.

⁹ This work is untraced.