Although Tivoli was the subject of numerous views by British artists and their continental contemporaries this distant view of the town was not often depicted. One such watercolour by John ‘Warwick’ Smith (1749–1831) (see figure 1) features the town's distinctive skyline of towers punctuated with substantial elongated buildings but the riverside view is not able to accommodate the so-called Villa of Maecenas, which features in a number of other Monro School works (such as TG0592 and TG0594). However, the author of the source used by Girtin and Turner took up a more distant viewpoint closer to that adopted by Francis Towne (1739–1816) (see figure 2) so that the extensive structure dominates the middle ground albeit in a way that hardly does justice to its spectacular cliff-top location. Whether or not this was the work of John Robert Cozens (1752–97) cannot be said for sure, though the survival of so many of his outline drawings of Tivoli and its surrounds dating from 1777 (see TG0589 figure for example) makes a lost sketch by him the likeliest source.
Monro’s posthumous sale, in 1833, contained numerous scenes in the Roman Campagna attributed to Turner, many of which were acquired by the artist himself, as here. The cataloguer of the Turner Bequest, Alexander Finberg, thought that Girtin alone was responsible for watercolours such as this example, whilst more recently Andrew Wilton has established their joint authorship (Finberg, 1909, vol.2, p.1235; Wilton, 1984a, pp.8–23). This work is one of the most carefully worked of the Monro School watercolours that employ a simplified palette of blues and greys, and, with its carefully articulated group of shepherd and sheep to the right, it resembles one of Cozens’ own finished drawings. Nonetheless, enough pencil work is still apparent, particularly in the buildings to the left, where the paper has been left untouched to create highlights, for us to be sure of Girtin’s involvement in its production.
1794 - 1797
Tivoli: The 'Villa of Maecenas’, Seen from an Elevated Viewpoint
TG0592
1794 - 1797
Tivoli: The 'Villa of Maecenas' and Part of the Cascades, Seen from Below
TG0594
1794 - 1797
Tivoli: 'The Temple of the Sibyl', Seen from Below
TG0589
About this Work
This distant view of Tivoli seen from the valley of the river Aniene,displays many of the signs that mark the unique collaboration between Girtin and his contemporary Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) at the home of Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833). Here they were employed across three winters, probably between 1794 and 1797, to make ‘finished drawings’ from the ‘Copies’ of the ‘outlines or unfinished drawings of Cozens’ and other artists, amateur and professional, either from Monro’s collection or lent for the purpose. As the two young artists later recalled, Girtin generally ‘drew in outlines and Turner washed in the effects’. ‘They went at 6 and staid till Ten’, which may account for the generally monochrome appearance of the works, and, as the diarist Joseph Farington (1747–1821) reported, Turner received ‘3s. 6d each night’, though ‘Girtin did not say what He had’ (Farington, Diary, 12 November 1798).1