A Fine Line: Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
A Fine Line: Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries
Property from the Collection of the late Cyril and Shirley Fry
John Hamilton Mortimer, A.R.A.
Banditi in a landscape
Auction Closed
July 7, 10:53 AM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Collection of the late Cyril and Shirley Fry
John Hamilton Mortimer, A.R.A.
Eastbourne 1740 - 1779 London
Banditi in a landscape
Pen and black ink;
signed with the artist's monogram lower left: JHM
521 by 380 mm
sale, London, Christie's, 25 March 1808, lot 59;
Cyril and Shirley Fry, by 1986
J. Sunderland, 'John Hamilton Mortimer. His life and works', Walpole Society, vol. LII, London 1986, p. 202, no. 171, fig. 298
Described in the Christie’s sale catalogue of 1808 as ‘very spirited… a grand upright landscape with Banditti, in the style of Sal. [Salvator] Rosa’, the present drawing is particularly highly finished and impressive in scale.
From an early age, Mortimer, who occupied a central position in London’s art world from the 1760s until his untimely death in 1779, aspired - above all else - to be a history painter. In the last decade of his life he was greatly inspired by the theme of banditti, the depiction of wild, romantic and dangerous bandits that had previously populated the dramatic landscapes of Salvator Rosa (1615-1673).