ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM PARS, A.R.A. (1742-1782)

A VIEW OF THE CORNER OF THE COLOSSEUM
Watercolour with pencil
21 x 28 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
[According to inscription to backboard & verso] Miss D. Broadwater (c.1800);
Acquired at Christie’s, London, as William Pars by previous owner;
Private Collection, Southwest U.K.
 
 
 
 
 
 
During Pars’ time in Rome, it would appear that he became familiar with the Perelles’ popular series of prints after the drawings of Jan Asselijn from a century earlier. Both this work and another Roman view by Pars - The Great Villa at Quintili, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 05.06.2008, Lot 192 - are almost exact copies after these prints, down to the staffage. See images 3 & 4 for the drawing (Rijksmuseum, RP-T-1956-182) and Perelle’s etching after it.
 
William Pars travelled to Italy in 1775 with a bursary given to him by the Society of Dilettanti. He spent much of his time in Rome, alongside other prominent British landscape painters including Francis Towne, John ‘Warwick’ Smith, and Thomas Jones, all of whom became close friends and regular painting companions during this period. Pars remained in Italy until his death in 1782 from pleurisy, thought to have been contracted when sketching standing in water. He is therefore one of the few artists who could reasonably say that they died for their art!