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We look through shadowed trees at a river winding into the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Close to us, a cluster of three thin trees and a larger central tree are deep in shadow, which contrasts with the light-filled scene beyond. The topaz-blue river curves from the lower right corner, across the canvas, and into the distance at the center. A few spindly trees grow along the riverbank in front of a hut with a thatched roof to our right. The bank to our left is lined with reeds and tall grasses. Behind the central shadowed tree, a long, low, narrow boat is occupied by four people with pale skin. To our left, a person with a dark garment and white collar reclines near a seated man wearing yellow and a feathered cap. To our right, another person reclines near the boatman who pushes the boat through the water using a long pole. The harvest yellow and sage green of the riverbanks and vegetation beyond the boats fades to hazy, pale blue mountains along the horizon line, which comes just over halfway up the composition. White clouds float across a blue sky above.
It might be said that with paintings like this one, Annibale Carracci invented the landscape as a subject for Italian baroque painting. Nature here is appreciated first and foremost for herself and not as the backdrop for a story. A mellow sunlight dapples the land and picks out the ripples disturbing the surface of the river. The gold in the treetops suggests a day in early autumn. Brightly clad in red and white, a boatman poles his craft through the shallow water.
In the company of his brother Agostino and his cousin Lodovico Carracci, Annibale made excursions into the country in order to sketch the landscape. From these quick studies made on the spot he worked up his paintings in the studio. The resulting composition is an artful balancing of forms. As the river wends its way through the countryside towards the foreground, the spits of land that chart its course are made to recede and project in an alternating rhythm of triangles. Trees, like signposts, mark the progress of recession into the distance. At the same time the bold strokes of dark trees in the foreground form a dramatic pattern on the surface to snap the spectator's attention back from the hazy blue of the distant horizon.
More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf
Provenance
Sir John Rushout, 6th bt. and 2nd baron Northwick [1770-1859], Northwick Park, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, originally Worcestshire, now Gloucestershire, and Thirlestane House, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; (sale, Phillips, Thirlestane House, 26 July-16 August 1859, no. 412, as by Velázquez); Mrs. Garcia, London. William Heathcote, London, by 1883.[1] (sale, Sotheby's, London, 24 June 1931, no. 31, as by Velázquez); Malcolm.[2] (F. Kleinberger & Co, New York and Paris); sold half interest 25 November 1947 to (Durlacher Brothers, New York);[3] purchased 19 May 1948 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1952 to NGA.
Six Centuries of Landscape, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1952, not in catalogue.
1986
The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986-1987, no. 91, color repro.
1988
The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 42, fig. 83.
1992
Esposicion Universal de Sevilla: Mediterranean Landscape [El Paisaje Mediterraneo], Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas (inside grounds of EXPO'92), Seville, Spain, 1992, repro. page 55 of cat.
2000
L'Idea del Bello. Viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovan Pietro Bellori, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 2000, no. 1, repro.
2006
Annibale Carracci, Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna; Chiostro del Bramante, Rome, 2006-2007, no. IV.11, repro.
2011
Nature et Idéal, Le paysage à Rome, 1600-1650, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2011, no. 1, repro.
Technical Summary
The original support is a loosely woven, plain-weave fabric of medium weight. The ground is a single red layer. It functions as a warm middle tone under the transparent darker layers and lighter colors thinly scumbled over it, as at the center left where the mass of reeds is indicated by a thin greenish yellow layer over the ground tone, with a sketchy definition of individual stalks. The large forms of the dark trees and earth in the foreground were applied first, followed by the sky and the distant landscape, with details, such as the smaller trees, the reeds, the figures, and the final definition of larger forms painted over the landscape and sky. Extensive pentimenti are visible, primarily in the trees.
The fabric has widely spaced cusping along all four edges. There are scattered losses throughout, with the sky and background exhibiting considerable abrasion and numerous small losses. Losses are also concentrated in and around the central tree. The painting was relined, discolored varnish removed, and the painting restored by Stephen Pichetto in 1948. Discolored varnish was removed and new inpainting was carried out by Teresa Longyear in 1985-1986 to reduce the confusing patterns created where the red ground showed through the abraded greens in the foliage and in the sky and water.
Bibliography
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 138, no. 59, repro., as Landscape.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 141, as Landscape.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 215, repro., as Landscape.
1960
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 18, color repro., as Landscape.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 23, as Landscape.
1966
Buschhausen, Helmut. "Die Landschaften des Domenichino, Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der klassizistischen Bildform von Annibale Carracci bis Claude Lorrain und Nicholas Poussin." Ph.D. dissertation, Vienna University, 1966: 119-120.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:264, color repro., as Landscape.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 16, repro., as Landscape.
1971
Posner, Donald. Annibale Carracci. A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting Around 1590. 2 vols. London, 1971: 1:115-116; 2:23, pl. 50.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 48, 647.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 72-73, fig. 133.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 56, repro., as Landscape.
1976
Malafarina, Gianfranco. L'opera completa di Annibale Carracci. Milan, 1976: 97, no. 47, repro.; color pls. 20-21.
1977
Salerno, Luigi. Landscape Painters of the Seventeenth Century in Rome. 3 vols. Translated by Clovis Whitfield and Catherine Enggass. Rome, 1977: 2:65.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:120; 2:pl. 82, as Landscape.
Chiarini, Marco. "Il paesaggio." In Storia dell'arte italiana. 13 vols. Turin, 1979-1983: 4:13, fig. 20.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 313, no. 410, color repro., as Landscape.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 76, repro.
1985
Harris, Ann Sutherland. Landscape Painting in Rome 1595-1675. Exh. cat. Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, 1985, unpaginated.
1986
Boisclair, Marie-Nicole. Gaspar Dughet. Sa vie et son oeuvre (1635-1675). Paris, 1986: 33.
1988
Cafritz, Robert C. "Classical Revision of the Pastoral Landscape." In Places of Delight, The Pastoral Landscape. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art and Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1988: 85, color pl. 50.
1988
Ottani Cavina, Anna. "Annibale Carracci e la lupa del fregio Magnani." In Les Carrache et les décors profanes. Actes du Colloque organisé par l'École française de Rome, 1986. (Collection de l'École française de Rome 106) Rome, 1988: 33, 36-37,fig.12.
1988
Whitfield, Clovis. "The Landscapes of Agostino Carracci." In Les Carrache et les décors profanes. Actes du Colloque organisé par l'École française de Rome, 1986 (Collection de l'École française de Rome 106). Rome, 1988: 83.
1989
Stanzani, Anna. "Un committente e tre pittori nella Bologna del 1590." In Andrea Emiliani. Le storie di Romolo e Remo di Ludovico Agostino e Annibale Carracci in Palazzo Magnani a Bologna. Bologna, 1989: 177.
1990
Lagerlöf, Margaretha Rossholm. Ideal Landscape: Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. New Haven, 1990: 47, fig. 21.
1991
Gingold, Diane J., and Elizabeth A.C. Weil. The Corporate Patron. New York, 1991: 89, color repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 109, repro.
1996
De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 45-49, color repro. 47.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 158, no. 118, color repro.
2011
Brogi, Alessandro . “Annibale Carracci.” In 100 Paysages: Exposition d’un genre, edited by Michael Jakob and Claire-Lise Schwok. Collection Archigraphy Paysages series. Gollion, CH, 2011: no. 39, color repro.
