Lot 57: A Classical Landscape with Ruins and Figures in the Foreground

Robert Carver (c.1730-1791) A Classical Landscape with Ruins and Figures in the Foreground signed inscribed and dated 'Robt. Carver Dublin 1766' (lower left) oil on canvas 48 x 78 in. (122 x198 cm.)

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Robert Carver was one of the leading landscape painters in Ireland in the second half of the eighteenth Century. Carver, like his celebrated contemporary Thomas Roberts, came from a family from Waterford. He studied initially under his father Richard, who was also a landscape painter, whose only known surviving picture landscape with Gentlemen Fishing and Shooting is in the Ulster Museum, and later under Robert West at the Dublin Society Schools and had a distinguished career as a scene painter in Dublin. In 1754, when still in his twenties, Carver succeeded John Lewis as scene painter at Smock Alley Theatre, where he painted a wide variety of scenery, and then went to work at the revived rival theatre in Crow Street where he painted a wide variety of scenery for Spranger Barry. Among his most celebrated creations at Smock Alley was the scenery for the production A Trip to the Dargle which was first produced in 1762 and then again, with a new set, in 1768, for which he painted 'an Astonishing Effect of the Representation of the Waterfall at Powerscourt'. Some idea of the impact of his work is given by Emily Countess of Kildare who commented of this 1762 set that the 'stage set of the [Powerscourt] Waterfall was the prettiest thing I ever saw, much beyond that at the opera and so like that at Powerscourt that you actually fancy yourself in the very place' (F. O'Kane, Mixing foreign trees with natives: Irish Demesne Landscape in the Eighteenth Century, unpublished PHD thesis, 2000, pp126-7). Carver moved to London in around 1769 where he was employed by Garrick as principal scene painter at Drury Lane and his work was met with critical acclaim. The Watercolourist and engraver Edward Dayes (1763-1804) in his Professional Sketches of Modern Artists commented of his 'Dublin Drop' a 'representation of a storm on a coast with a fine piece of water dashing agaisnt some rocks ... with the barren appearance of the surrounding country' that it 'will be remembered as the finest painting which ever decorated a theatre' (The Works of the Late Edward Dayes, London, 1805, ed. R. Lightbown, 1971, p.323). Carver later moved to Covent Garden with Spranger Barry where he remained employed until his death.

Alongside his work as a scenery painter Carver also produced a number of easel paintings although relatively few are known. This large capriccio is important as a rare example of a painting which Carver signed in full and dated perhaps reflecting the artist's particular satisfaction with it. Most of Carver's known works are signed only with initials and are dated relatively early in his career, which would appear to reflect the fact that as his successful career painting scenery for the theatre became more demanding he found himself with less time for easel paintings such as the present picture. He sent twenty pictures to the Free Society's exhibitions in London between 1765 and 1768, of which he was to become a Fellow in 1773 and eventually President in 1777. He later also exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1789 and 1790. The present picture shows the influence of Claude's Arcadian landscapes. An earlier work by the artist, signed with initials 'R.C.' and dated 1754 and of slightly smaller format, is in the National Gallery of Art, Dublin (NGI 4065; N. Figgis & B. Rooney, Irish Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland, I, Dublin, 2001, p. 101).