Josephus Augustus Knip Tilburg 1777 - 1847 Berlicum

bidding is closed

Description

Josephus Augustus Knip
landscape near galloro, with a traveller on a wooded road and a fountain
inscribed in black lead, lower left: à Galloro
grey wash and watercolour over black chalk
Inv.nr. N 421

Provenance

With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1969

Exhibited

Amsterdam, Gebr. Douwes, Schilderijen, aquarellen en tekeningen, 1969, cat. no. 57;
The Hague 2001, cat. no. 67, reproduced in colour, p. 156, fig. 31

Literature

E.S. Bergvelt, J.A. Knip (1777-1847) landschapschilder, Amsterdam 1974 (unpublished doctoral thesis) catalogue of drawings, location unknown 190 C;
F. Kuyvenhoven, 'De aan Hendrik Voogt (1768-1839) toegescheven tekeningen in de Galleria dell 'Accademia te Venetië. Hun herkomst en hun ware auteur: Francesco Londonio,' in Oud Holland 106 (1992), p. 24, p. 30, note 21

Catalogue Note

Leaving Rome by the Porta Sebastiano and heading along the Via Appia, one passes Castel Gandolfo before coming to Ariccia, with its Chigi family palace and baroque church of Santa Maria dellÁssunzione, built by Bernini in 1664. Just outside the town walls of Ariccia stands the convent of Santa Maria di Galloro, founded in 1624 and enlarged, again with contributions from Bernini, in 1661.

The path and fountain seen here, in what is one of Knip's more intimate depictions of Roman landscape, must have been very close to the convent. It was also represented several times by other artists: the Neapolitan Gabriele Smargiassi made a painting of it in 1826, and before that Knip's countryman, Hendrik Voogd, depicted the view in three drawings. The first of these is a rapid study on a page of a sketchbook now in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum (inv.nr. A 3295, sheet 3). Voogd then produced a more elaborate and finished version of the composition, which is now in the Accademia, Venice (see literature), after which he made another, even larger drawing, signed in full and dated 1806 and now in Hamburg (Kunsthalle, inv.nr. 22.671), in which the fountain, bearing its Chigi arms, is still seen from the same viewpoint, but the path to the right has been replaced by a panoramic vista with Ariccia on the horizon.