GIOVANNI COSTA (ITALIAN 1833-1893) and GEORGE HEMING MASON (1818-1872)
Isle of Capri (recto); Sketch of girls picking fruit (verso)
signed G. Costa. (lower left); signed Mason (on the reverse)
pencil on laid paper
11.3 x 16 cm (4 1/2 x 6 1/4 in)

In 1844 George Heming Mason went to Italy with his brother, settling in Rome in 1845. To make ends meet he painted souvenir views of the landscape around Rome. From 1852 to 1857 he worked closely with the Italian landscape painter Giovanni Costa. Mason adjusted his style to that of Costa, absorbing his ideas, and together with other foreign painters, they founded a new school of landscape painting, which years later came to be known as the 'Etruscans'.