Italian Landscape with Hilltop Village

Artist James Giles (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1801 - 1870)

Date1825

Mediumpencil and watercolour on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 22.5 cm, Width: 36.5 cm
Frame: Height: 39.7 cm, Width: 52.5 cm

AcquisitionBequeathed in 1992 by John Sparrow OBE.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG010549

Keywords

About MeJames Giles was versatile as an artist, but it is his extraordinary breadth and variety as a landscape painter that chiefly carves his niche in the history of Scottish art. In his diaries, he claims to have been the first in Aberdeen to 'point the path to studying from nature', which no doubt was a result of his 1824-26 Continental sketching tour: the major period of his development as a landscape artist.

This sketch, in its formal aspects is comparable to JR Cozens' 18th century Italian 'stained drawings'. The formal dignity of the composition and the fine tonal gradations of the subdued tones of brown, blue and olive, create an atmospheric harmony.