Carlo BOSSOLI
(Davesco 1815 - Turin 1884)
The Neptune Fountain and the Paseo del Prado, Madrid
Sold
Watercolour and gouache.
Signed C. Bossoli at the lower left.
256 x 458 mm. (10 1/8 x 18 in.)
Signed C. Bossoli at the lower left.
256 x 458 mm. (10 1/8 x 18 in.)
Carlo Bossoli made a long trip to Spain and Morocco in 1851, and this splendid watercolour is likely to date from this year or shortly thereafter. Another view of Madrid, depicting the Plaza Mayor and almost certainly of the same date, shares the same Russian provenance as the present sheet. Apart from Madrid, Bossoli is also known to have visited a number of other cities in Spain in 1851, and in later years produced spirited watercolour and gouache drawings of Seville and Cadiz, as well as views of the Escorial, Burgos, Aranjuez and Barcelona. Some of these views may have been commissioned by the Spanish-born Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoléon III, who is listed in Bossoli’s account book as the purchasor of eleven ‘vedute della Spagna’ in 1858.
The present sheet is one of four highly finished drawings in gouache and watercolour by Bossoli that were once part of the collection of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (1798-1860), born Princess Charlotte of Prussia and the wife of Tsar Nicholas I. The other three watercolours were views of the Royal Palace in Berlin, the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and the colonnade of the summer palace at Sanssouci, near Berlin. The set of four watercolours by Bossoli were presented as gifts to a British diplomat shortly before or after the Dowager Empress’s death in 1860. They remained in the possession of the diplomat’s family for the next 130 years before being dispersed at auction in 1990.
The present sheet is one of four highly finished drawings in gouache and watercolour by Bossoli that were once part of the collection of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (1798-1860), born Princess Charlotte of Prussia and the wife of Tsar Nicholas I. The other three watercolours were views of the Royal Palace in Berlin, the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and the colonnade of the summer palace at Sanssouci, near Berlin. The set of four watercolours by Bossoli were presented as gifts to a British diplomat shortly before or after the Dowager Empress’s death in 1860. They remained in the possession of the diplomat’s family for the next 130 years before being dispersed at auction in 1990.
Perhaps the foremost topographical artist in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, Carlo Bossoli was born near Lugano in Switzerland and as a child emigrated with his family to in Odessa in southern Ukraine. He was recognized as a young artist of considerable ability, and soon came to the attention of the Countess Elizabeth Vorontsov, wife of the governor of the province, who encouraged him to train with the Italian decorative artist Rinaldo Nannini, a pupil of the Milanese architect and stage designer Alessandro Sanquirico, who was working in Odessa. Bossoli began his career as an apprentice stage designer at the Odessa Opera, and by the age of eighteen was selling his drawings of views of Odessa and the surrounding landscape. With the support of the Vorontsov, he was able to study in Rome in 1839-1840. On his return to Ukraine in the early 1840s he travelled extensively around the Crimea, producing a large number of drawings, watercolours and gouaches of everyday life, local costumes and views of the main sites and cities there. Bossoli and his family returned to Europe in 1843, eventually settling in Milan. In 1850 he made his first visit to England and Scotland, and the following year visited Spain and Morocco. By 1853 Bossoli had settled in Turin, where he lived for the remainder of his career. He began producing panoramic landscapes and city views that were often published as lithographs in albums for the commercial market, such as Vedute della città di Torino, which appeared in 1851, and Galleria sulla linea ferroviara Torino-Genova, published two years later.
With the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, Bossoli decided to travel to London, where his knowledge of the Crimea stood him in very good stead. The immense interest on the part of the British public for views of Sebastopol, Balaklava, Inkermann and the other battlegrounds mentioned in news reports encouraged Bossoli to produce a series of fifty-two Crimean views that were reproduced as lithographs for a lavish volume entitled The Beautiful Scenery and Chief Places of Interest Throughout the Crimea from Paintings by Carlo Bossoli, published in London in 1856. These views were considered some of his finest works as a topographical artist, and among the many avid collectors of Bossoli’s watercolours of Crimean landscapes were Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington. Bossoli exhibited his works at the Royal Academy between 1855 and 1859, and in 1857 undertook his longest journey yet, travelling through France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Switzerland. Each of his travels resulted in drawings and watercolours of the cities and sites that he visited. Between 1859 and 1861 he was attached to the Piedmontese (Royal Sardinian) army and produced a splendid series of well over a hundred gouaches illustrating the military campaign for the independence of Italy, commissioned by Prince Eugenio di Savoia-Carignano; all but ten of these are now in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento in Turin. Bossoli died of a heart attack in Turin in 1884.
With the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, Bossoli decided to travel to London, where his knowledge of the Crimea stood him in very good stead. The immense interest on the part of the British public for views of Sebastopol, Balaklava, Inkermann and the other battlegrounds mentioned in news reports encouraged Bossoli to produce a series of fifty-two Crimean views that were reproduced as lithographs for a lavish volume entitled The Beautiful Scenery and Chief Places of Interest Throughout the Crimea from Paintings by Carlo Bossoli, published in London in 1856. These views were considered some of his finest works as a topographical artist, and among the many avid collectors of Bossoli’s watercolours of Crimean landscapes were Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington. Bossoli exhibited his works at the Royal Academy between 1855 and 1859, and in 1857 undertook his longest journey yet, travelling through France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Switzerland. Each of his travels resulted in drawings and watercolours of the cities and sites that he visited. Between 1859 and 1861 he was attached to the Piedmontese (Royal Sardinian) army and produced a splendid series of well over a hundred gouaches illustrating the military campaign for the independence of Italy, commissioned by Prince Eugenio di Savoia-Carignano; all but ten of these are now in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento in Turin. Bossoli died of a heart attack in Turin in 1884.
Provenance
The Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo
Given by her to a British diplomat c.1860
Thence by descent until 1990
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby’s, 28 November 1990, lot 8
Guillermo de Osma Galería, Madrid, in 1997
Private collection, Spain.
Exhibition
Madrid, Guillermo de Osma Galería, La Espanã Romántica 1830-1860, 1997, no.39
