Lot 90: A monastery between Ariccia and Genzano

Jonathan Skelton (1735-1759) A monastery between Ariccia and Genzano signed, inscribed and dated 'A Monastery between L'Aricia and Gensano J Skelton 1758' (on the reverse) pencil, pen and grey ink and grey wash 10¾ x 16½ in. (27.4 x 41.9 cm.)

Acquired some time after 1760 by Thomas Blofeld of Hoveton House, and then by descent to;
T.C. Blofeld; Hodgson's, 30 April 1909, part of lot 613.
Sir Henry Theobald, K.C.; Sotheby's, 13 May 1925, lot 144 (sold 13 gns to Tancred Borenius). The Harewood Charitable Trust; Christie's, London, 9 July 1985, lot 49.
with Agnew's, London.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1997, lot 59.

Relatively little is known of the early watercolourist, Jonathan Skelton's, life. He is recorded as working in Croydon, London and Rochester during the 1750s and travelling to Italy around 1757, dying in Rome in 1758. Skelton's watercolours are important as they are examples of some of the earliest topographical views by an English draughtsman on the Continent painting in plein air and preceding artists such as Francis Towne (1740-1816), see lot 128, and John 'Warwick' Smith (1749-1831) who travelled there over two decades later.

Skelton was an accomplished artist and a particularly strong draughstman of architectural structures. His drawings are typically executed in a restricted palette of washes and are punctuated by areas of 'jagged edged' foliage through which Skelton explores the dramatic light effects of the Italianate scenery. Iolo Williams suggests in his Early English Watercolours, 1952, p. 24, that Skelton shares a great deal with his contemporary Paul Sandby R.A., although so little is known of Skelton that an acquaintance between the artists cannot be proved.

The monastery is presumably the Carmelite convent at Genzano.