Spring at Cadenabbia

John Collier (1850-1934)

1911

Oil on canvas

29 1/2 x 24 1/2 inches

Exhibited Leicester Galleries, 1915, no. 1

[See commentary below]

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Commentary by Rupert Maas

Collier's early landscapes were much influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. One of his earliest landscapes was of a moraine: 'a portrait so accurate that there were those who said that it showed a want of imagination.... He thought it right not to make any attempt to improve what he saw with his own eyes before him - to put in or take out a cloud, a tree, or an effect of sunlight was to him the one obnoxious thing...'. [Art Journal, 1894, pp. 65-66.]

The view is of Varenna on the eastern shore of Lake Como, painted from above the small town of Gadenabbia on the western shore.

We are grateful to Richard Booker for his help in identifying this.">/p>

References

The Maas Gallery. Exhibition catalogue. London, 2008. Catalogue no. 62.

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Last modified 8 July 2008