A ruined Roman aqueduct

John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) is one of the most important artists from the golden age of English watercolour painting. Whilst working under Dr Thomas Monro (1759-1833) (see lot 66), Cotman came under the influence of Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), and the latter's influence can be seen in Cotman’s early work. However, Cotman's later work demonstrates a startlingly original approach. Miklos Rajnai wrote of Cotman, ‘Haydn once said his years of isolation in the court of Eszterhaza had forced him to be original. Cotman’s isolation was of a different more desperate kind, and if it did not force him to be original it perhaps drove him to remain so. In its inventiveness and range, over a career of forty years, Cotman’s originality is still one of his most astonishing qualities.’ (M. Rajnai, John Sell Cotman 1742-1842, London, 1982, p. 17).
The present watercolour dates from the mid to late 1830s, when Cotman’s work was again innovative and exciting. It combines Cotman’s key qualities of a romantic response to the picturesque along with his almost abstract vision for design or, as Rajnai notes, ‘an ability to convey complex representational information with daring economy of means.’ The arches of the aqueduct are almost flat planes of colour, yet the eye is drawn through the arches by means of shadows to view a row of trees placed on a surprisingly low and wide horizon. The effect is both beautiful and arresting, with a modernity of form and a textured colour palette, realised by his experimental and distinctive technique of mixing watercolour and flour paste.
This watercolour depicts the Claudian Aqueduct between the Monte Coelio and the Palatine, right in the heart of Rome but transposed here to a rural location. This particular viewpoint of the aqueduct is based on an engraving, which differs from Piranesi's etching of it.