Born near Carlisle, John “Warwick” Smith was the son of the Gilpin family’s gardener, and he subsequently studied art with Captain John Bernard Gilpin, whose sons William and Sawrey would also become important artists. Smith secured the patronage of the collector and connoisseur George Greville, the 2nd Earl of Warwick, after having been introduced to him by Sawrey Gilpin in 1775. Smith received the nickname “Warwick” either from the place he resided in England or, most likely, his patron.
British artists, such as Richard Wilson in the 1740s, followed by Thomas Jones, William Pars, and John Robert Cozens in the 1770s, had frequented the environs of Italy on the Grand Tour before Smith made his way there in 1776. He was sponsored by his patron, who paid for his passage to Italy and his studies there for five years, from 1776 to 1781. His older contemporary, Francis Towne, arrived in Rome in 1780.1 While in Rome in 1780–81, Towne and Smith made Roman views that were similar in subject matter and perspective. They both emphasized light and shade as well as the sun hitting the stonework of the Roman monuments, such as in their watercolors of the Baths of Titus, the Baths of Caracalla, and the Colosseum.2 In his diaries, Joseph Farington wrote of Warwick Smith’s journey to Italy and how “Towne was influenced by Smith’s work, and Smith may have learnt something from Towne.”3
On their return journey together to England in 1781, Towne and Smith took an easterly route over the Alps, stopping at the Italian Lakes, before crossing Splügen Pass into Switzerland. They traveled first to Lago Maggiore, then Lago Lugano and Lago Torfi, followed by Lago Como before taking the northern route of Via Mala along a gorge.4 As with other watercolors of this journey, Smith probably completed this one back in Warwick, England, based on his travel sketches. It was presented as part of a series of watercolors in a portfolio for his patron, which resided in the earl’s library in Warwick Castle.5
Smith and Towne are known to have drawn Italy’s watery topography from boats and from the shorelines of the lakes.6 Until recently, this watercolor was known simply as Lake in North Italy; it can now be grouped with a few drawings that Smith and Towne made along the shoreline of Lake Como. For Lake in North Italy (Lake Como), Smith stood on the shoreline of the town of Como or in a boat looking west across the water toward the hills and town of Cernobbio.7 The viewpoint encompasses the large glacial valley and the mountain valleys to the north with the distinguishable Monte Minisfreddo and Poncione d’Arzo beyond. It also looks back toward the valley near Mendrisio on the Lake of Lugano, which Smith portrayed on a visit there a few days earlier.8
Smith divided this scene into three horizontal striations: sky, land, and lake. Its straightforwardness is amplified by the manner in which he applied tone—delicate, smooth, blue, green, brown, and gray washes—exploiting the translucency of the medium and the shine of the white paper. The exposed bare paper is evident in the clouds, a villa near the shoreline, and modulations in the water. Unlike his traveling companion, Smith did not use hard-edge graphite and pen outlines to demarcate the features within the composition, but instead drew simple, discreet pencil lines to indicate the buildings, the woods along the lake’s shoreline, and their subtle reflections in the water. Smith created depth by lightening his color palette as the landscape recedes to the distant, pale bluish-gray mountains. The Italianate features of red-tiled roof palazzi dot the edge of the hillside in a balanced formation in the middle ground. Based on their locations, Smith portrayed Oratorio della Madonna di Asnigo atop one hill and perhaps the towered structure of Chiesa Parrocchiale di Piazza Santo Stefano on the far hill. The shadows and coloring indicate that the composition was made late in the afternoon with the sun setting in the west.9 It strikes a comparison with Towne’s drawings in the area, dated August 27, 1781, in his travel sketchbook, as they took the road along the lake’s edge from Como to Bellagio. In particular, this watercolor by Smith is from a similar perspective as Towne’s watercolor View of Lake Como (fig. 15.1), as seen in the mountains in the background and the inscription on the mount, “light on the right hand.”10 Towne made another watercolor, View of Lake Como with Monte Legnone (fig. 15.2), noting the high peak of Mount Legnone rising in the center background and a steep slope to the right as he looked northeast toward the town of Bellagio on the headland.11 It was also made on the same date that the artist journeyed from Como toward Domaso, where he spent the evening.12 Smith produced another watercolor, A View of Lake Como, Italy (1781, fig. 15.3), inscribed on its verso “Como,” that focuses on the town of Como, looking toward the lake in the direction of Santa Maria Assunta church, from a distant vantage point.13 —Dena M. Woodall
Notes
1. See B. S. Long, “John ‘Warwick’ Smith,” Walker’s Quarterly, no. 24 (1926–27); A. P. Oppé, “Francis Towne,” Walpole Society 8 (1919–20): 95–126.
2. See Francis Towne, The Baths of Titus, 1781, brown wash and watercolor over graphite on paper, the Trustees of the British Museum [Nn.1.5], and John “Warwick” Smith, The Baths of Titus. Evening. Rome, 1749–1831, watercolor over graphite on paper, the Trustees of the British Museum [1936,0704.21]; Francis Towne, The Baths of Caracalla, Huge Ruined Arches Seen from Above, with Distant Vista, January 1781, pen and black ink with brown and gray wash and watercolor on paper [from album Nn, 01.1-25], the Trustees of the British Museum [Nn, 1.6], and John “Warwick” Smith, The Baths of Caracalla, 1780–81, watercolor over graphite on paper, the Trustees of the British Museum [1936,0704.25]; and Francis Towne, The Colosseum, 1780–81, the Trustees of the British Museum [Nn, 2.28], and John “Warwick” Smith, The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine from the Palatine, 1780–81, watercolor over graphite on paper, the Trustees of the British Museum [1936,0704.6]. Four lots of watercolors by “Warwick” Smith from the Warwick Collection were sold in June 1936 and included his Roman views. See London, Sotheby’s, Warwick Collection . . . , June 17, 1936, lots 147–150, and Edward Croft Murray, “Drawing by John ‘Warwick’ Smith from the Warwick Collection,” British Museum Quarterly 11 (October 1936): 9–11.
3. See Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol. 3, September 1796–December 1798, ed. Kenneth Garlick and Angus Macintyre (London and New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press, 1979), 774 (14 February 1797), and Joseph Farington, The Diary of Joseph Farington, ed. Kathryn Cave (London and New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press, 1983), 3,796 (11 November 1810), and Edward Croft Murray, “Drawings by John ‘Warwick’ Smith from the Warwick Collection,” British Museum Quarterly 11, no. 1 (October 1936): 11.
4. The reconstructed journey is based on Towne’s watercolors. See Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, exh. cat. (London: Tate Gallery, 1997), 89–90.
5. See Matthew Hargraves, “John ‘Warwick’ Smith,” in Great British Watercolors: From the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press, 2007), 42–43, cats. 15–16.
6. See Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, exh. cat. (London: Tate Gallery, 1997), 92, cat. 36.
7. This view of Lake Como is also seen in an 1810 print. See Karl Kuntz, after Joseph Rebell, View from Beelvio across Lake Como to Cernobbio, c. 1810, engraving in colors on paper, collection of the Princely Collections, Liechtenstein. In the print, the Chiesa Parrocchiale di Piazza S. Stefano, erected in 1563 in Cernobbio, is indicated on a hilltop.
8. See John “Warwick” Smith, Mendrisio, no date, watercolor and ink on paper, Tate Gallery, purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, 1996 [TO8487]. Towne also made watercolors near Mendrisio on Lago Lugano. See Francis Towne, A View of Mendrisio Eight Miles from Como, August 24, 1781, graphite, pen, and brown ink with gray and brown water on paper, inscribed in brown ink: “Mendris 8 miles from Como / morning light coming from the right hand,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, [FT343], and Francis Towne, A View of Lake Lugano Taken from Mendrisio, c. August 24, 1781, graphite, pen, and brown ink with gray-brown wash, Christie’s, London, British Art on Paper, June 5, 2003, lot 40 [FT344]. Among the drawings on this route, Towne also sketched Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore before reaching Lake Como. See Towne, Isola Bella, August 25, 1781, gray-brown wash on paper, numbered “7,” Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour & Pencil Drawings, exh. cat. (London: Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1936), cat. 83 (as Isola Bella Monochrome) [FT349].
9. Thanks to Craig S. Calvert for his study on this work and its comparison with views of the location using Google Earth Studio images of the same location as well as correspondence on December 19, 2023, with Richard Stephens. See curatorial files, department of prints and drawings, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
10. Francis Towne, View of Lake Como, August 27, 1781, pen and brown ink and watercolor on paper, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2016 [2016.620]. Chiesa Parrocchiale di Piazza Santo Stefano is also noted in this watercolor. Other views of Lake Como and the city of Como by Towne are known; see Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne and His Friends: An Exhibition of Watercolors, exh. cat. (London: John Spink at Colnaghi, 2005), cat. 13, illus.
11. See Francis Towne, View of Lake Como, August 27, 1781, pen and brown ink and watercolor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2016 [2016.620], and Richard Stephens, A Catalogue Raisonné of Francis Towne (1739–1816) (London: Paul Mellon Centre, 2016), section 2.6, Small Sketchbook: Northern Italy, Switzerland, Savoy and Germany, August and September 1781, FT314.
12. In John White Abbott’s copy after a drawing by Towne, Richard Stephens suggests that this composition may also show Bellagio. See John White Abbott after Francis Towne, Lake Como, no date, graphite, pen, and gray ink, brown and gray washes on paper [FT825], private collection, Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood Fine Art Auctioneers, Exeter, October 23, 2013, http://francistowne.ac.uk/collection/list-of-works/lake-como-793/essay/john-white-abbott/page/1, and correspondence, Richard Stephens and Dena M. Woodall, December 12, 2023, curatorial files, department of prints and drawings, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Thanks to Craig S. Calvert for additional studies on the watercolors on Lake Como by Towne in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and their comparison with views using Google Earth Studio images of the same location. See curatorial files, department of prints and drawings, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
13. John “Warwick” Smith, A View of Lake Como, Italy, 1781, watercolor over graphite on laid paper, Julia Korner Conservation & Fine Art, London; see anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, London, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century British Drawings and Watercolours, November 15, 1990, lot 86 (as An Italian Town on a Lake), signed, verso, in graphite, “Como.”
Lake in North Italy (Lake Como)
Hargraves, Matthew. “John ‘Warwick’ Smith.” In Great British Watercolors: From the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press, 2007.
Long, Basil S. John (Warwick) Smith (1749–1831). London: Walker’s Galleries, 1920.
Murray, Edward Croft. “Drawings by John ‘Warwick’ Smith from the Warwick Collection.” British Museum Quarterly 11, no. 1 (October 1936): 9–11.
Powell, Cecilia, and Stephen Hebron. A Cumbrian Artist Rediscovered: John Smith (1749–1831). Grasmere, UK: Wordsworth Museum, 2011.
Wilcox, Timothy. Francis Towne. London: Tate Gallery, 1997.
ProvenanceThe artist, c. 1778; George Greville (1746–1816), 2nd Earl of Warwick, c. 1781–1816; by descent to Charles Greville (1911–1984), 7th Earl of Warwick; [probably Sotheby’s, London, Important Drawings by the Old Masters and Masters of the English School Removed from Warwick Castle and sold by Order of The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Warwick, and of the Trustees of the late (6th) Earl of Warwick, June 17 1936, probably lot 148 (as A parcel of water-colours of scenes in Italy, etc. (32)]; [purchased by Walker’s Gallery, London, 1936–1960]; purchased by Walter Augustus Brandt (1902–1978) by 1960; by descent in Brandt family, 1978–2023; [Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker , London, 2023 (as Lake in North Italy)]; purchased by MFAH, 2023.
Comparative Images
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