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John Warwick Smith

The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli, 1776-1831

Description

Maker

  • John Warwick Smith, 1749-1831, English

Title

The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli

Year

1776-1831

Medium

Watercolor over graphite on laid paper with scraping

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • watercolor

Dimensions

44.1 x 50.2 cm (17 3/8 x 19 3/4 inches)

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Anonymous gift

Object Number

69.154.12

Projects & Publications

Publications

RISD STEAM/Discovery Through Juxtaposition

Read Online

Selection II

British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Distant Climes

September 1, 2011 - June 3, 2012

John “Warwick” Smith visited the Tivoli region in the late 1770s on a sketching trip with Francis Towne (whose work appears to the right in this gallery). Tivoli was one of the two primary excursions taken by British artists and tourists from Rome. It offered not only an entrée to the idyllic Italian countryside, but also access to the ruins of ancient pleasure palaces, namely the Villa of Maecenas (1st century BCE) and Hadrian’s Villa (2nd century CE). Smith’s composition is experimental, forgoing a classical sense of proportion to instead highlight a prominent foreground tree. His technique combines pen outlines with occasional washes of pure color, while retaining a limited palette of rose and tan.

Selection II

April 13 - May 14, 1972

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is The Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli with the accession number of 69.154.12. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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