Old Masters Day Sale
Old Masters Day Sale
The Property of a Distinguished Collector
Francesco Foschi
Winter landscape with a waterfall and a peasant family by a cottage
Lot Closed
December 5, 03:14 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Distinguished Collector
Francesco Foschi
Ancona 1710 - 1780 Rome
Winter landscape with a waterfall and a peasant family by a cottage
inscribed and dated on the reverse: Peint par le Chevalier François Foschi / Rome l'an 1778.
oil on canvas, unlined
unframed: 98.8 x 135.9 cm.; 38 7/8 x 53 1/2 in.
framed: 125.7 x 161.5 cm.; 49 3/8 x 63 5/8 in.
From whom acquired by the previous owner;
By whom anonymously sold ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Sotheby's, 10 July 2002, lot 74, where acquired.
The inscription in French written on the reverse of this unlined canvas supports the theory that Foschi, though he worked in Rome for the majority of his career, was painting for an export market. This landscape was executed just two years before the artist's death. Another winter landscape dating from the following year is inscribed almost identically: 'Peint par le Chevalier Foschi / a Rome L'an 1779' (sold New York, Sotheby's, 30 January 1997, lot 189).
A very similar version of this composition, albeit with differences in many of the details, was sold London, Sotheby's, 11 December 1996, lot 121, and is recorded in the catalogue raisonné (published before Marietta Vinci-Corsini had knowledge of the present painting), as 'probably an early work.'1
1 M. Vinci-Corsini, Francesco Foschi, Milan 2002, p. 168, cat. no. 12, reproduced p. 36, fig. 12.