Francesco Zuccarelli

In the possession of the family of the present owner since at least the nineteenth century.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting has an old lining which has lost tension. The paint surface is secure and there is a prominent stretcher mark to the top. The paint and the impasto are in a good preserved state. The removal of the discoloured varnish would improve the tonality."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This painting is typical of the arcadian format that Zuccarelli produced with such ease and which accorded him a staggering popularity during his lifetime. A native of Florence, he settled in Venice by 1732, and made his reputation with a pastoral idiom that appealed strongly to both the local nobility and foreign visitors, most notably the British Consul Joseph Smith. Smith's connections led Zuccarelli to make two trips to England, the first in 1752-62, and the second between 1765 and 1771, where he gained the patronage of King George III.

The markedly Italianate nature of the landscape and staffage in the present work, which recall the work of Zuccarelli's contemporaries such as Giambattista Cimaroli, suggests that it may have been painted in Italy rather than England. The compositional device of a group of figures, including children with fishing rods, beside a stream, anchored to one side by a repoussoir of a tree and with an italianate hill town in the distance, was staple in Zuccarelli's artistic vocabulary and was adapted to a variety of designs over the years. Close comparisons include the pair of landscapes sold in these Rooms, 11 December 1996, lot 55, or the upright pair of landscapes sold London, Christie's, 11 July 2001, lot 96. Indeed the strong compositonal accents on the right of the present painting suggest that it too may have originally formed part of a pair.