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SALVATOR ROSA ARENELLA, NAPLES 1615 - 1673 ROME AN EVENING LANDSCAPE WITH TRAVELLERS IN THE FOREGROUND, THE SEA BEYOND

signed with monogram lower left: SR

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Sir John Frechville Ramsden, 6th Bart. (d. 1958), of Longley Old Hall, Huddersfield, and Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass (according to a label on the reverse);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 26 October 1988, lot 56.
CATALOGUE NOTE

Though he also painted battles, scenes of witchcraft and portraits, Salvator Rosa was most admired in his own day as a painter of landscapes, and his skill in the genre was remarked upon by Filippo Baldinucci, just eight years after Rosa's death: "...non pare che resti in dubbio fra gli intendenti che Salvatore sia stato veramente, di quanti abbiano fin qui operato, il più singolare in materia di paesi" ("...there is no doubt amongst connoisseurs that Salvatore was, amongst those who have practiced the genre to this day, the most distinguished in painting landscapes"). Rosa's wild, rocky landscapes, though bathed in a warm southern light, contrasted greatly with the arcadian scenes being produced by his contemporaries in Rome, namely by Claude Lorrain and Gaspard Dughet (for an example by the latter see the next lot in this sale).

This landscape would appear to be an early work by the artist, datable to Rosa's Florentine period (1640-49). Rosa was summoned to Florence in 1640 by Gian Carlo de' Medici, the younger brother of Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and he took up residence there, receiving a small monthly allowance of 8 scudi on top of what he earnt for each picture he painted. Most painters working in Florence at that time, Carlo Dolci and Francesco Furini among them, were producing religious or secular works and the fact that there were very few accomplished landscape-painters working in Florence at that time worked greatly to Rosa's advantage. This painting can be dated on stylistic ground to the early part of Rosa's Florentine sojourn, as confirmed by a comparison with other works painted by Rosa during this period. Its style and composition - figures conversing on a pathway in the foreground and a sweeping vista beyond a rocky hillside - are closely comparable to those in Rosa's signed Landscape with travellers asking the way in the collection of Sir Denis Mahon, which has been dated to circa 1641 (reproduced in colour in J. Scott, Salvator Rosa. His Life and Times, New Haven & London 1995, p. 36, fig. 40). Another painting from the same moment in Rosa's career is today at Corsham Court and the fact that it was formerly in the Niccolini collection in Florence lends further support to the theory of dating this group to Rosa's Florentine years (reproduced in L. Salerno, L'opera completa di Salvator Rosa, Milan 1975, p. 87, no. 38).The attribution to Salvator Rosa has been endorsed, following first-hand inspection, by both Sir Denis Mahon and Mr. Jonathan Scott. Both believe the painting to be an early work by the artist, Mr. Scott dating it to the early part of Rosa's Florentine period.