Live Auction 1137Old Master & British Drawings & Watercolours
Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (Amersfoort 1652/3-1736 Rome)
Lot 27

Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (Amersfoort 1652/3-1736 Rome)

View of Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore (recto); Details of the same view, with terraced gardens and a mountain range (verso)

Closed2 July 2013

Price Realised

GBP 21,250

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Gaspar van Wittel, called Vanvitelli (Amersfoort 1652/3-1736 Rome)
View of Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore (recto); Details of the same view, with terraced gardens and a mountain range (verso)
with inscription 'Lago Maggiore - Isola Bella details' (verso)
pen and brown ink, squared for transfer in black chalk, on two joined sheets
14½ x 38¼ in. (37 x 97 cm.)

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi.
Acquired by Vincenzo Pacetti circa 1801.
P. Fatio; his sale, Rauch, Geneva, 13-15 June 1960, lot 404.
with Agnew's, London, The Italian Scene: Drawings by Vanvitelli, 1961, no. 3.
S.F.C. Mieson, Oxford.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 2 July 1996, lot 152.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 6 July 2005, lot 149, where acquired by the present owner.

Specialist note

Vanvitelli's sojourn at Lago Maggiore resulted in a series of twelve paintings of the Isole Borromee (Briganti 1996, nos. 333-344), executed between 1684 and 1718. Most of them share the viewpoint of the present drawing, with Isola Bella and its splendid landscaped gardens as the focal point. Previously the site of a modest fishing village, the island was developed between 1630 and 1670 by the Borromeo family and named in honour of Isabella d'Adda, wife of Carlo III Borromeo.