Giovanni Battista Lusieri: 6 works

'Lusieri was particularly popular among the aristocratic English travelers who visited Italy as part of their Grand Tour in the 1700s. They greatly admired his attention to detail, commissioning views such as this to remind of the places they had visited.'

'He sought out the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri, whose detailed drawings and watercolors of views of Naples and other Italian sites were popular with Grand Tourists in the 1780s and 1790s. Lusieri produced this sweeping view on six sheets of watercolor paper.'

'Lusieri produced this sweeping view on six sheets of watercolor paper. Its clarity, purity of color, and accuracy of detail led many people to believe that Lusieri used a telescope or camera obscura to record the intricacies, proportion, and perspective of his settings.'

'Giovanni B. Lusieri (1751-1821): The Parthenon from the Northwest, 1802. The building, designed by Iktinos, was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world; it is depicted here despoiled of the west pediment after plundering by Lord Elgin, for which Lusieri was primarily responsible.'

'Lusieri wrote to Elgin that 'before having the three metopes taken down, I wished to finish my drawing of them which I started a long time ago'. For some reason, Elgin never received the drawing, and this, along with another Lusieri watercolour (D NG 711), were acquired by Lady Ruthven.'

'In 1799 Lusieri was employed by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, as his resident artist and agent in Athens, where he remained until his death. Lusieri was closely involved in supervising the removal and transport to Britain of the Elgin Marbles.'