North Italian School, 18th century

Private collector, England;

By whose executors anonymously sold ("Sold by the Order of the Executors of a Lady"), London, Christie's, 25 June 1915, lot 10 (as H. Robert);

Where acquired by Owen;

Thereafter acquired by the present collector.

Both of these charming capricci, or fantasy scenes of classical ruins, evoke the graphic style of Canaletto, the renowned eighteenth-century Venetian celebrated for his depictions of real and imagined view paintings. In each work the painter utilized two-point oblique perspective, known as scena per angolo, thereby expanding the imagined expanse of the works.