Lot 24063: HENRI ROLAND LANCELOT, MARQUIS DE TURPIN DE CRISSE (French 1754 - died circa 1800)

HENRI ROLAND LANCELOT, MARQUIS DE TURPIN DE CRISSE (French 1754 - died circa 1800)
Lago de Lugano
Oil on canvas
Signed on reverse
12-3/4 x 16 inches

PROVENANCE:
Newhouse Galleries, New York, NY;
Mr. and Mrs. F. Howard Walsh, Fort Worth, Texas;
Walsh Family Art Trust

The picturesque beauty of the lake district is no better captured than in this misty view overlooking the Lago di Lugano. The serene calmness of the deep mountain lake ringed by the wooded hills at the foot of the Ticinese Alps provides the backdrop for a tight cluster of stucco and tiled buildings in the left foreground. Already a coveted retreat for Italian vacationers, Lugano came to symbolize the charm of pastoral life for middle-class Europeans throughout the nineteenth century. The nostalgic quality of this light-filled view sets the stage for the romantic interpretations of the Alps by Corot and Turner only a few years later.