JOHN 'WARWICK' SMITH, O.W.S. (1749-1831)

ON THE PALATINE HIL, ROME
Signed with monogram & dated l.r. 1784
Watercolour
38 x 31.5 cm
 
 
 
 
Smith painted the present subject twice, with another version (showing the same perspective but with different staffage, and unsigned but titled) in the Yale Centre for British Art which is inscribed Mt Paladine [sic] (B1982.27). It is absolutely typical of Smith's early Italian views: the distinctive terracotta-tiled roofs, whose colour is complimented by the sunburnt orange of the palm trees and bushes, feature throughout Smith's Italian views, and are redolent of his contemporary and sketching-partner Thomas Jones' own watercolours from this period. The majority of Smith's paintings of Rome are in museum collections today, with the largest groups including two dozen in the British Museum and numerous further examples in Yale.
 
A view of the Colosseum from the Palatine Hill by Thomas Jones bears an inscription which notes the particular significance of the location for British artists at the time: the view was drawn from a garden 'belonging to the English Colledge upon Mount Palatine - & which served as a kind of Play-ground to ye boys - who were there educated', with Smith himself utilising the perspective for his own paintings of the Colosseum and Forum.