Lot 47: Giacomo Quarenghi (Bergamo 1744-1817 Saint Petersburg)

A mountainous landscape with a Genoese castle on a hill top, with a town at the bottom
inscribed 'Tarjook lieu Entouré chateau par les genois' (recto) and with inscription 'Quarenghi' (verso)
black chalk, pen and grey ink, grey wash, on two attached sheets of paper
13 7/8 x 9 1/2 in. (352 x 239 mm.)

The inscription on the present drawing suggests that it depicts the ruins of Genoese colony on the Black Sea coast, perhaps in the Caucasus, one of a large number established by the republic before the mid 15th Century when it was blocked from the Black Sea trade by Venice.
Quarenghi arrived in Russia in 1779, primarily to work as an architect at the court of Catherine the Great and later Tsar Paul. However a number of landscape drawings of the south and east are known, many perhaps inspired by views made by other travellers. A view of the Caucasus, very similar in handling to the present drawing, was sold in these Rooms, 5 July 2005, lot 113.

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