Lot 40: PIETRO FABRIS

THE PROPERTY OF SIR PETER MOORES, CBE DL, REMOVED FROM PARBOLD HALL DOCUMENTED IN NAPLES 1756 - 1804 POSILLIPO, A VIEW OF THE COAST TOWARDS VESUVIUS; POZZUOLI, A VIEW OF THE BAY Quantity: 2 the former signed lower left: P. Fabris p.; the latter signed and dated lower left: P. Fabris F 1773 a pair, both oil on canvas each: 47 by 70.5 cm.; 18 1/2 by 27 3/4 in.

Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (1891–1949), 8th Baronet; By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 5 February 1947, lot 63, where purchased by W. Sabin; Private collection, USA; Anonymous sale ('Property from an Alabama Estate'), New York, Sotheby's, 14 January 1994, lot 67, for $300,000, where acquired by Browse and Darby on behalf of the present owner.

In 1773 Fabris published his Raccolta di varii Vestimenti ed Arti del Regno which recorded the various contemporary costumes, occupations and pastimes around Naples. It is thus of little surprise that this signed pair of canvases from the same year illustrates the artist's fascination with the colour and liveliness of the Neapolitan coastline. A pair of views of similar dimensions, dated 1771, and taken from a more distant view point are today in the Burton Constable Foundation and show a comparable balanced interest as the present works do between the buildings in the landscape and the populace around them.1 Another pair of similar dimensions and dated 1770 is at Burghley House, Stamford.2 1. See H. Brigstocke in Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses, York 1994, p. 79, cat. nos. 41-42, reproduced pp. 79 and 80. 2. See H. Brigstocke and J. Somerville, Italian Paintings from Burghley House, exhibition catalogue, Alexandria (Virginia) 1995, pp. 70-71, cat. nos. 15 and 16, both reproduced in colour.