Giovanni Battista Lusieri

A. Weston-Lewis, Giovanni Battista Lusieri, exhib. cat., Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, 2012, p. 141, under no. 52, and note 4

The watercolour is within pen and brown ink framing lines, laid down on the original mount with inscription on the verso, possibly in Lusieri's own hand: Veduta del Laco d'Averno. Overall in very good condition, colour remains fresh and vibrant. In the lower left corner there is a trace of what appears to be a water stain, only slightly visible in the image in the catalogue. Some surface dirt both in the sky and on the lake, barely visible. Framed in a modern gilded frame.
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This impressive view is of Lake Averno, an extremely famous and important site to the east of Naples.  It was formed in a volcanic crater and is roughly one mile in circumference.  In Roman times it was thought to be the entrance to Hades and in the Aeneid Virgil describes Aeneas descending into the Underworld through a nearby cave.  As noted by Aidan Weston-Lewis in his catalogue of the current Lusieri exhibition in Edinburgh, this is a celebrated spot, and it was frequently portrayed by other important artists in the eighteenth century, who were fascinated as much as their patrons by the allure of Italy, such as Richard Wilson, Thomas Jones, and Jacob Philipp Hackert.  The clarity of light and definition of detail mastered by Lusieri in depicting these famous sites is almost unparallelled and justifies the fame and appreciation of his very rare watercolours.  Thomas Jones, who like Lusieri, seems to better capture the subtlety of light in the south of Italy writes in his Memoirs: 'Sigre Giambattista Lusier, a Roman, usually called D. Titta, who made tinted drawings which were admired for their correctness and strict attention to Nature, and many of them purchased by our English Cavaliers.'¹

This View of Lake Averno must have been especially successful and admired by rich and aristocratic travellers, mostly from Britain. Two other autograph versions, also in watercolour, are known: one formerly in the collection of the Earl of Elgin at Broomhall, sold in 1986²; the other from the Estate of Pauline Harrison, sold in 2008.³  Weston-Lewis suggests that the prime version, the one retained in the artist's studio for tempting potential clients, was that which belonged to Lord Elgin.  The present example is the only version which is signed and dated by the artist.  Weston-Lewis has identified, still in Lord Elgin's collection, two complete tracings of this view on multiple sheets.⁴ 

In all three versions, the view is taken from the same viewpoint, looking south across the lake and the narrow isthmus dividing it from the Bay of Baia and Capo Miseno beyond.  All include the rocks to the left which, as rightly noted by Weston-Lewis, have been introduced by the artist to frame the scene.  In fact this darker area to the far left cleverly enhances and contrasts the clarity and purity of colour which Lusieri achieves in this outstanding view, which is dominated by subtle shades of green and blue.  The foreground figures are the same in all three, but the former Elgin watercolour is slightly wider and of a more oblong format and includes only two figures in the right middle ground rather than three.  All include to the left, on the eastern shore of the lake, the ruined and evocative Temple of Apollo, which was the subject of a separate study by Lusieri, formerly in the Elgin Collection and also sold in 1986.⁵

During his own lifetime Lusieri was famous, not simply for the beauty of his views, but also for the painstaking way in which he created them.  He began by drawing the outlines for the entire composition in a hard pencil which was sent to him specially from London.  He then began adding the watercolour, by his own account directly from nature, building it up in layers to achieve the richness and density that distinguishes his works.  He worked out the figures individually and then incorporated them into the composition; there are four separate watercolour studies, for the young woman on a donkey, the standing man with the hoe, his dog and the gesturing woman at the far right.⁶  

Very little is known about Lusieri's early life, but he was born in Rome around 1755 and moved to Naples in the early 1780s, possibly around 1785.  He was quickly recognised as an extremely talented vedutista and his studio became a destination for English aristocrats on the Grand Tour, whom he supplied with large and detailed views of Naples and Sicily.  In 1799, at the recommendation of Sir William Hamilton, Lusieri joined the Earl of Elgin on his Embassy to Constantinople.  He subsequently moved to Athens, where he remained as the Earl's agent until his death in 1821.  He was primarly active during this period in the negotiations for the acquisition and shipment of the Elgin Marbles.  During these years he also made many watercolours of Greek views for Lord Elgin, unfortunately all but one of which were lost in a shipwreck in 1828.

1. 'Memoirs of Thomas Jones', Walpole Society, vol. XXXII (1946-48), p. 122

2. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 1986, lot 108; Weston-Lewis, op. cit., p. 140, fig. 81

3. Sale, New York, Doyle's, 22 October 2008, lot 2029 (together with a pendant The Plain of Paestum); Weston-Lewis, op. cit., no. 52, reproduced p. 142

4. Weston-Lewis, op. cit., p. 141, reproduced fig. 83

5. Sale, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 1986, lot 123;  Weston-Lewis, op. cit., reproduced fig.12

6. Weston-Lewis, op. cit., p. 140, reproduced fig. 82; no. 33; no. 45; for The gesturing woman see F. Spirito, Lusieri, Naples 2003, p. 144, no. 62, reproduced