Thomas Luny (St. Ewe [?] 1759-1837 Teignmouth)
Lot 13

Thomas Luny (St. Ewe [?] 1759-1837 Teignmouth)

View of Southampton from the east across the River Itchen

Closed20 November 2013

Price Realised

GBP 8,125

More Information

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Thomas Luny (St. Ewe [?] 1759-1837 Teignmouth)
View of Southampton from the east across the River Itchen
signed and dated 'T. Luny 1829' (lower left)
oil on canvas
20 x 28 in. (50.8 x 71.2 cm.)
Canvas has been lined. There is some very light craquelure.
UV light reveals 2 small patches of retouching to the centre right edge to possible puncture marks. There is some retouching to frame abrasions along the upper edge and some scattered areas of infilling to craquelure.
The restoration has been sensitively and competently handled and the picture is in good ready-to-hang condition.

Beaumont Sevant, 1829.
Private collection, U.K.

Specialist note

Southampton has been an important port since Norman times. In the Middle Ages it grew rich trading with France, Portugal, Venice and Genoa, but trade declined in the late sixteenth century. By Thomas Luny's day Southampton was a fashionable bathing place, with stucco terraces and summer villas on the outskirts.

Luny concentrates on the historic heart of Southampton rather than showing the nineteenth century developments. This view shows the city from the east across the Itchen, with the famous town walls silhouetted on the horizon. The town was heavily fortified against French raids in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; many of these walls survive in a remarkable state of preservation.