ABRAHAM-LOUIS-RODOLPHE DUCROS (YVERDON 1748-1810 LAUSANNE)

This atmospheric view of Taormina, in Sicily, shares the same viewpoint, loose handling and extensive Prussian blue palette with another watercolour by Ducros depicting the Greek theatre of Syracuse in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. P.4-1950; J. Zutter, Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros. Un peintre suisse en Italie, exhib. cat., Lausanne, Musée cantonal des beaux‑arts, 1998, p. 19, fig. 19).
The present work dates from the turn of the century, like another watercolour depicting an Orage nocturne à Cefalù dated circa 1800-1805 in the Musée cantonal des Beaux Arts de Lausanne (inv. 812; J. Zutter, op. cit., no. 57, ill.) - a period during which there is no evidence of the artist visiting Sicily (again). Highly suggestive, these views from Sicily mark a watershed in Ducros' artistic research; moving away from his bright, luminous neoclassical origins, and the warm ochres of the rocks, the artist's views became tenebrous and pre-Romantic in their rendering, evoking the worlds of Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825) and John Martin (1789-1854) and influenced by the taste of his British patrons for the sublime and Gothic novels. After a short stay in Malta, Ducros returned to his home country of Switzerland in 1807, where he lived in Lausanne until his death in 1810.