Lot 187: Attributed to Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (Danish, 1775-1850) View of St John's Church, Valletta, Malta unframed

View of St John's Church, Valletta, Malta
pen and ink
20.5 x 31cm (8 1/16 x 12 3/16in).
unframed
together with two Continental costume studies in pencil by another hand (3)

PROVENANCE:
The collection of Edward Joshua Cooper (Irish, 1798-1863) of Markree Castle, Collooney, Co. Sligo
Thence by direct descent

The Baroque St John's Church, now St John's Co-Cathedral, seen here from the corner of Strada S. Giovanni and Strada Mercante, is the sacred home of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta. It was commissioned by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière in 1572 as the conventual church of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John. It was designed by the celebrated architect Gerolamo Cassar, who also built seven of the nine auberges belonging to the Knights.

St John's Church was a popular subject for Brocktorff. A watercolour of the same subject was sold at Christie's in September 2008. He also lithographed the subject, which was published in Descriptions of Malta and Gozo by George Percy Badger (Malta, 1838) and also illustrated in T. Vella, Charles Frederick de Brocktorff: Watercolours of Malta at the National Library, Valletta, Volume II (Valletta, 2008, p.34, Pl.I.5):

"In keeping with the accuracy of representation in his other views of Valletta, Brocktorff's paintings of St John's Church are faithful to what any visitor could have observed in the late 1820s and early 1830s, and can be interpreted as credible testimony to the building, inasmuch as a historical document would." (Vella 2008, p.191)

He also regularly painted and lithographed another view of St John's Church, from the corner of Strada Reale and Strada S. Giovanni (illustrated in Vella 2008, p.186, Pl.VIII.1 & p.191, Pl.VIII.5). A watercolour of this alternative viewpoint was sold in these rooms in September 2009:

"In representing the church Brocktorff preferred to depict the long building from either the Strada Reale from Strada Mercanti, similar to the way he chose to depict the façade of the Palace. These were possibly intended to be sold as pairs, or simply to present the building through a drawing convention he was familiar with, that of the isometric view." (Vella 2008, p.191)


BIBLIOGRAPHY:
T. Vella, Charles Frederick de Brocktorff: Watercolours of Malta at the National Library, Valletta, Volume II (Valletta, 2008)