 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA (Sunderland 1793- London 1867) |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Castello di Rovereto
|
signed and dated 'CStanfield RA 1851' (lower right)
oil on panel
39 x 60 cm. (15½ x 23½ in.)
|
| |
Provenance
|
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
|
|
|
Full Expertise:
|
|
This hitherto undiscovered work is a version of Clarkson Frederick Stanfield’s important The Battle of Roveredo in the Royal Holloway College Collection, Egham, Surrey (see exhibition cat. fig 1). Castello di Rovereto depicts a rugged and idyllic mountain landscape caught in the early evening light. The bright ice-capped mountains beyond lead us down into the darker valley below, the Alps fortifying the valley and framing the composition. Perched on the cliff, overhanging the little party of travellers on the track, is a picturesque fortified dwelling. The original foundations seem to be from a Roman tower, architecturally evolving over the centuries into a medieval turret, this physical reference to antiquity thereby evokes an ancient landscape. The castle, in fact, thirteenth century in date serves as the backdrop for another version of this landscape, The Battle of Roveredo, also of 1851, this time recording a fierce battle beneath its ramparts.
The Battle of Rovereto, also known as Battle of Roveredo, was waged on 4 September, 1796 during the French Revolutionary Wars between French and Austrian forces. It was fought near the town of Rovereto, thirty miles south of Trent in northern Italy, ending in a French victory. The engagement between the advance formations of the Italian forces commanded by Massena and the larger part of Davidovitch’s Austrian troops. General Wurmser had entrusted Davidovitch to defend the area around Trent, while the main Austrian forces headed south east in an attempt to relieve besieged Mantua. The Austrians deployed 14,000 men between the road junction of Rovereto and the village of Marco but the French captured the main position by sending one brigade to outflank them. During the battle the French took 6,000 prisoners as well as 20 artillery pieces, all for the loss of a few hundred men.
Stanfield spent time travelling extensively throughout Italy and was renowned for his paintings of various topographical scenes. Much of his work, such as Castello di Rovereto, was directly informed by his many travels abroad, since whilst travelling Stanfield would make an extensive number of sketches. He was meticulous in organising his sketches keeping them numbered and ordered. Later he would refer to these sketches in his studio to produce oils and watercolours, but rarely did he paint them from life. His first tour was to Italy in 1824 with fellow artist William Brockedon, then, in 1830, after several short trips to France he embarked on a major trip to Venice, via Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The next ten years included more trips to Germany and Italy. In 1843 he toured Holland and in 1851, the date of the present painting, he toured France and Spain with his wife, Rebecca. He built up an extensive collection of sketches from these trips and would often take delight in using them to recount his journeys to visitors.
|
|
Artist biography
|
Clarkson Frederick Stanfield is often wrongly referred to as William Clarkson Stanfield. The son of Mary Hoad and James Field Stanfield, an Irish actor and author, he was apprenticed to a heraldic coach painter at the age of 12, but in 1808 he abandoned this and went to sea in a collier. In 1812 he was press-ganged and spent two years on HMS Namur, the guard-ship at Sheerness. After being discharged as the result of an injury in 1814, he joined the merchant navy, sailing to China in the Indiaman Warley in 1815. Soon after his return in 1816 he missed his ship and became a scene painter, first at the Royalty Theatre, Stepney, and then at the Royal Coburg, Lambeth. There he was later joined by David Roberts, who became a lifelong friend, and in 1822 both men were employed as scene painters at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. During the next 12 years Stanfield established himself as the most talented scene painter of his day, causing a sensation with some of his huge moving dioramas such as the scenes of Venice in the pantomine Harlequin and Little Thumb (1831). Meanwhile he was building an equally impressive reputation as an easel painter. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1820 and continued to exhibit there regularly until his death. He was elected ARA in 1832 and RA in 1835. He was a founder-member of the Society of British Artists and became its president in 1829.
Stanfield was regarded as the greatest British marine artist of his day. The public preferred the immediacy and high finish of his sea paintings, as in A Market Boat on the Scheldt (1826; London, V&A), to the misty visions of J. M. W. Turner’s later years, and John Ruskin praised him at length in Modern Painters (1843–60), drawing particular attention to his truthfully observed skies and his astonishing ability to render the movement and transparency of water. His most impressive work is the vast Battle of Trafalgar (1836; London, United Services Club). It combines his expertise at drawing ships with the scene painter’s talent for working on a large scale. A tour de force on a much smaller scale is On the Dogger Bank (1846; London, V&A), which shows a Dutch fishing boat in gale force winds. His portrayal of stormy seas in this picture stands comparison with the work of the van de Veldes, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Turner. Other major works include Tilbury Fort—Wind against Tide (exhibited RA 1849; Port of London Authority), HMS ‘The Victory’ Towed into Gibraltar (exhibited RA 1853; private collection, see 1979 exhibition catalogue, no. 304) and The Abandoned (exhibited RA 1856; untraced), a powerful image of a dismasted ship which won a First Class Gold Medal at the Exposition Universelle, Paris (1855).
In addition to his oil paintings, Stanfield produced many watercolours, the best of which have the spontaneity of watercolours by Bonington, an artist he much admired. He also furnished illustrations for several books, notably Stanfield’s Coast Scenery (1836) and Poor Jack (1840), a collection of sea stories by Captain Marryat. In 1847 he and his family moved into the Green-Hill, a large house in Hampstead. It became a meeting-place for writers and artists including William Makepeace Thackeray, Edwin Henry Landseer, C. R. Leslie and Charles Dickens, a devoted friend who was later to describe Stanfield as ‘the soul of frankness, generosity and simplicity, the most loving and lovable of men’. Stanfield also contributed illustrations to Dickens’s Christmas books and designed sets for his amateur theatricals.
Stanfield’s second son, George Clarkson Stanfield (1828–78), attended the Royal Academy Schools and became a successful landscape painter, exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1844 to 1876 and at the British Institution from 1844 to 1867. He painted some coastal scenes but is chiefly known for his topographical views of the Rhine valley, Switzerland and the Italian lakes.
Collections
Stanfield is represented in the following collections: Victoria and Albert Museum, London; University of Liverpool Art Gallery & Collections, UK; Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport; Guildhall Art Gallery, London; Torre Abbey, Torquay; amongst others.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|