THOMAS PATCH | FLORENCE, A VIEW OF THE RIVER ARNO WITH THE PONTE ALLE GRAZIE

Anonymous sale, London, Christie’s, 27 May 1921, lot 136 (as attributed to William Marlow);

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 24 January 2008, lot 424 (as Thomas Patch) for $350,000.

"There were many successful view painters in Italy during the eighteenth century, but few of them were as evidently entranced by the charm of daily life in Italy as Patch. Here the artist used his veduta as the setting to paint the real life of Florence's inhabitants, seen here crossing the Arno in a boat, stripping off to go for a dip, or doing the laundry. All of this wrapped in the warm glow of Italy's sun and Florence's history."

Edoardo Roberti

This idyllic view shows the city of Florence and the Ponte alle Grazie from the banks of the River Arno. Constructed in 1237 and originally conceived with nine arches, the Ponte alle Grazie, which connects the Via dei Benci and Piazza de' Mozzi, was one of the first bridges to be built in the city of Florence. The Ponte alle Grazie was the only bridge to survive the great floods of 1333; however, it did not fare as well under military attack and was destroyed by the Germans in 1944, making this painting an important historic document of the early appearance of this medieval structure.

Three other variants of this composition by Thomas Patch are recorded: one was sold at Sotheby's, London, 9 March 1988, lot 64, for £16,500; another is in the collection of the Marquess of Cholmondeley at Houghton Hall, one of a pair delivered to Horace Walpole from Sir Horace Mann in December 1771;¹ and the third was sold at Sotheby's, London, 5 July 1967, lot 7.    

¹ F.J.B. Watson, 'The Life of Thomas Patch', in The Walpole Society, vol. XXVIII, p. 39, no. 26.