Price on request
Inscribed on reverse of the mount: No 27 Pulpit Sta Maria Toscanella/June 1846
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour and gum arabic
49.4 by 33.9cm., 19 1/4 by 13 1/4 inches
Provenance:
Warrington Collection
Tuscania, or Toscanella, was a favourite place for Cromek who visited there in May 1844 and was particularly impressed by the two Romanesque churches, San Pietro and Santa Maria Maggiore. He recalled in his Journal: `Toscanella is the anient Tuscania in Etruria….. It contains two remarkably interesting old churches of the 10th and 11th century very rich in ornaments; the porches are very beautiful.' Tuscania is in the province of Viterbo just under sixty miles north of Rome.
Views of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore are in the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester and the Warrington Collection. His Tuscania views are considered amongst his finest work.
Price on requestSigned lower left: T.H. CROMEK f
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour
281 x 417 mm., 11 x 16 ¼ in.
Villa Torlonia was originally built in the sixteenth century and its name dates from the nineteenth century when it was bought by Prince Torlonia. The villa was destroyed when Frascati was bombed on 8th December 1943 but the gardens are now a public park.
Price on requestSigned lower left: T.H. Cromek f. 1838
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic
493 x 303 mm., 19 ¼ x 12 in.
Cromek was born in London, the son of engraver, and was apprenticed to a portrait painter in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He soon became a landscape painter and lived and worked on the continent, and mainly in Rome, from 1831 to 1849. He built up a successful teaching practice there until 1849 when he was forced home by Garibaldi’s threatened attack on Rome.
The Cappella Maggiore is the central chapel of Santa Croce and was decorated by Agnolo Gaddi with frescoes telling the story of the Legend of the True Cross dating from circa 1380.
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Watercolour over pencil heightened with gum arabic
13.7 by 24.1cm., 5 ? by 9 ? inches
Provenance:
The Cheney Family of Badger Hall, Shropshire;
With Colnaghi, London, 1972
Exhibited:
London, Colnaghi, Thomas Hartley Cromek ? Exhibition of watercolours and drawings of Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean, 29 Feb-30 March 1972, no.46
This shows the Acropolis with the Temple of Zeus Olympios to the left and the monument of Philopappos on a hill in the distance. Cromek visited Athens twice, in the summer of 1834 and again in 1844 when he spent two months drawing its principal monuments.
?I was delighted by everything I saw at Athens: the colour of the buildings being much richer, and less dark than that of the ruins in Rome. As specimens of architecture, they are universally considered perfect. I certainly worked very hard when able, and I am astonished at the number of sketches, large and small which I made in the course of a fortnight or very little more? (Thomas Hartley Cromek, Reminiscences at Home and Abroad 1812-1855, August 23rd, 1834).
Sold inscribed verso: From Thos H. Cromek/to Capt Cheney/Villa Muti Frascati/3 June 1832 and on part of former mount: Terrace of the Villa Muti at Frascati given to me by T.H. Cromek/1832
watercolour over pencil
14.2 x 22.6cm., 5 ? x 8 ? inches
The Villa Muti is located to the south-west of Frascati, which is 15 miles south-east of
The grounds of the villa has formal English gardens dotted with Mannerist sculpture while the villa itself contains frescoes by Lanfranco, Pietro da Cortona, Cigoli and Passignano and now belongs to the local `Comune di Grottoferrata.?
Provenance:
Given by the artist to Captain Cheney of Badger Hall,
Sold dated on flowerpot: 1832, inscribed verso: Villa Muti/June 20 th 1832 and inscribed on part of former mount: Boschetto at the Villa Muti Frascati given to me by/ T.H. Cromek 1832
Watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour
19.1 x 24.5cm., 7 ? x 9 ? inches
The Villa Muti is located to the south-west of Frascati, which is 15 miles south-east of
The grounds of the villa has formal English gardens dotted with Mannerist sculpture while the villa itself contains frescoes by Lanfranco, Pietro da Cortona, Cigoli and Passignano and now belongs to the local `Comune di Grottoferrata.?
Provenance:
Given by the artist to Captain Cheney of Badger Hall,
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Signed lower left: TH CROMEK VENICE/1834.
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour
25.6 by 17.8 cm., 10 by 7 inches
Provenance:
By descent in the Cheney family to the present owner
Cromek was born in London, the son of engraver, and was apprenticed to a portrait painter in Wakefield, Yorkshire. He soon became a landscape painter and lived and worked on the continent, and mainly in Rome, from 1831 to 1849. He built up a successful teaching practice there until 1849 when he was forced home by Garibaldi?s threatened attack on Rome. This picture belonged to the keen amateur artist Robert Henry Cheney (1801-1866) who was a friend and pupil of Cromek.
This shows the statue of the Venetian Condottiero Bartolommeo Colleoni (1400-1475) designed by Andrea del Verrocchio which stands outside the church of San Giovanni e Paolo which is visible to the right.
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Signed lower left: TH CROMEK f. 1846/VILLA CHIGI/ARICCIA and inscribed verso: In the Chigi Palace Ariccia/1846
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour
30.9 by 41.1 cm., 12 by 16 inches
Provenance:
By descent in the Cheney family to the present owner
The Villa Chigi is in Ariccia in the hills south- east of Rome and belonged to one of the most influential papal families in Rome. The Chigi Family transformed the villa into a baroque palace between 1664 and 1672 using plans by Bernini. Cromek travelled with Mary Somerville and her family, who noted on her own visit to the Chigi Villa that it was ?in a most picturesque but dilapidated state? (see ?Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville by her daughter Martha Somerville? Echo Library 2009).
Sold Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic
37.5 by 51.4 cm., 14 ¾ by 20 ¼ in.
Provenance:
Mrs Huskisson, Rome, 1845;
Hubert George de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (1832-1916);
By whom bequeathed to his great-nephew, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882-1947);
By descent until 2012
Exhibited:
Bath, Holburne Museum, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Vision of Italy, March-May 1999;
Yorkshire, Harewood House, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Vision of Italy, September-October 1999
Literature:
Tancred Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood, Oxford 1936, p. 115, no. 242;
Yorkshire, Harewood House and Bath, Holburne Museum, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Classical Vision, 1999-2000, p.33
Cromek’s Journal for 12th February 1845 recalls: `Interior of the Church of San Clemente for Mrs Huskisson. She got the original study, as I was tired of copying it’ (see Thomas Hartley Cromek, Reminscences at Home and Abroad 1812-1855).
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Watercolour over traces of pencil
13.1 by 24.4 cm., 5 by 9 1/2 inches
Sold
Watercolour over traces of pencil
14 by 24.3 cm., 5 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches
Sold
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic
43.0 by 31.1 cm., 16 ¾ by 12 ¼ in.
Provenance:
Hubert George de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (1832-1916);
By whom bequeathed to his great-nephew, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882-1947);
By descent until 2012
Exhibited:
Bath, Holburne Museum, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Vision of Italy, March-May 1999;
Yorkshire, Harewood House, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Vision of Italy, September-October 1999
Literature:
Tancred Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood, Oxford 1936, p. 115, no. 244;
Yorkshire, Harewood House and Bath, Holburne Museum, Thomas Hartley Cromek: A Classical Vision, 1999-2000, p.20, pl. 4
Born in Yorkshire, the son of the engraver R.H. Cromek, Cromek travelled to Rome in the early 1830s where he remained until 1844. He became successful as an artist of topographical views, many of them interiors, and as a drawing master. He visited Venice in 1834 and 1835. Another view of the interior of St Mark’s is in the Royal Collection and was bought directly from Cromek by Queen Victoria in July 1843. Cromek was summoned to Buckingham Palace to show the Queen a number of drawings and afterwards received the following letter:
`The Dowr. Lady Lyttleton is desired by the Queen to express to Mr Cromek Her Majesty’s and HRH Prince Albert’s great admiration is his beautiful sketches. Her Majesty is also very anxious to possess two of them, if they are on sale. The view of Naples, and the interior of St. Mark’s’.
