PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR (LOTS 181-5) HUGH 'GRECIAN' WILLIAMS & GREECE (Lots 181-3) Born in Edinburgh, 'Grecian' Williams established his reputation and moniker through his extended travels in Greece and Italy, from which he returned in 1818. In 1822 he exhibited the watercolours from his journey in Edinburgh, and the writer and critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830) commented that 'Here another Greece grows on the walls...ancient temples rise...As works of art, these watercolour drawings deserve very high praise...We have at once an impressive and satisfactory idea of the country of which we have heard so much' (W.C, Hazlitt (ed.), W. Hazlitt: Essays on the Fine Arts, London, 1873, pp. 141-4). The following three lots illustrate WilliamS' influence from previous masters of pictorial landscapes, writing in his Travels in Italy, Greece and the Ionian Islands (1820) that 'the scenery in Athens demands our most careful study...Nature will not present electrifying truths...unless [we] study her not only as she is, but as seen through the medium of works of genius...Poussin and Claude agree with the character of Athens...The simple dignity of form and colour, perceptible in these works of these great men, enters into the spirit of its story, and calls forth corresponding sentiments'.

Hugh William 'Grecian' Williams (? Devon 1773-1829 Edinburgh)

An extensive view of the Acropolis and Athens, Greece, with the Herodeion Atticon below

细节

Hugh William 'Grecian' Williams (? Devon 1773-1829 Edinburgh)
An extensive view of the Acropolis and Athens, Greece, with the Herodeion Atticon below
signed and dated 'H W Williams/1822' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with bodycolour and with scratching out
25 x 39 in. (63.5 x 99 cm.)

来源

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 May 1998, lot 180.

刻印

The artist for Select Views in Greece with Classical Illustrations, London, 1823, I, no. 3.

荣誉呈献

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拍品专文

A highly-recognisible and important symbol of the democratic Antique world, the Acropolis in Athens dominates the cityscape as it has done since it was developed around 450-330 B.C. The Herodeion Atticon (or Odeon of Herodus Atticus) was built at the base of the Acropolis, around 161 A.D., by the Roman philosopher, teacher and politician, Herodes Atticus, in memory of his wife.

On seeing the spectacular sites at the Acropolis, Williams wrote 'Who that has seen it, has not spoken of this building with raptures?... Instruction emanates from every part. It teaches the rules of nice proportion, of grace and beauty. With how much majesty does it rise among the heaps of surrounding ruins...The consumate skill in the adjustment of every part, the knowledge of the perfect forms of nature, and the adapting them to the expression of ideal beauty, still remains a mystery...The whole is rich, yet pleasingly subdued, and when the evening sun illuminates the temple,...imagine how splendid it must be!' (Williams, loc. cit.).