STUDIO OF CLAUDE-JOSEPH VERNET | CAPRICCIO VIEW OF NAPLES, WITH WASHERWOMEN AND FISHERMEN IN THE FOREGROUND; AND A CAPRICCIO VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SYBIL IN TIVOLI, WITH A WATERFALL AND A SHEPHERD WITH HIS FLOCK IN THE FOREGROUND

Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown (1730-1801), Russborough House, County Wicklow;

By whom gifted to Elizabeth, Lady Leitrim (d. 1817).

At Killadoon by 1806 when listed among pictures cleaned and restored for the Earl of Lietrim by George Meade: 2 Views – by Vernet – new lined, cracks laid down, restored - 6 gns., Private ms. 23 November 1806;

Inventory, 27th June 1836, 'Between the windows two landscapes given to the late Lady Leitrim by Lord Milltown from Vernet, the one represents morning the other evening, in gilt frames' in the Dining Room.

The present paintings are studio versions of works by Claude-Joseph Vernet. The location of the original canvases is unknown, but the compositions are recorded in Florence Ingersoll-Smouse's catalogue raisonné of Vernet's œuvre.¹ The pair painted by Vernet was commissioned by the Duke of Nevers and executed in Rome in 1771. Vernet's painting on which the former of this pair is based was engraved by Jean Jacques Le Veau in 1773.²

Following his father, the younger Joseph Leeson, 2nd Earl of Milltown went to Italy on a Grand Tour to broaden his education. In 1751, he arrived in Rome accompanied by some friends; this moment is recorded by Joshua Reynolds in a group caricature (refer to lot 57).

¹ Both oil on canvas, each 72 x 96 cm., the former signed and dated: J. Vernet, Romae 1751; F. Ingersoll-Smouse, Joseph Vernet, Paris 1926, vol. 1, p. 60, cat. nos 313-314.

² Ingersoll-Smouse 1926, reproduced pl. XXIX, fig. 68.