Andrea Locatelli (Italian, 1695-1741)
Landscape in Latium with two fishermen (c.1730)

oil on canvas
Unframed: 43.8 x 34.2 cm. (17 1/4 x 13 1/2 in.) Framed: 58 x 48 cm. (22 7/8 x 18 7/8 in.)

With Colnaghi, London
From whom acquired by Sir Thomas Barlow (1883-1964) in 1961
Thence by descent to his daughter, Theodora Gertrude Winter (née Barlow) (1912-2003)
Sale; Dorotheum, Vienna, 2 June 1967, lot 76 (unsold)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Literature:
Andrea Busiri Vici, Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del Settecento, Rome, 1976, cat. no. 158, n.p., reproduced (as location unknown)

Exhibited:
London, Colnaghi, Paintings by Old Masters, 1961, no. 14
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings from Sir Thomas Barlow's Collection, 22 March - 4 May 1968, no. 11

Locatelli was the son of the painter Giovanni Francesco Locatelli, under whom he trained until 1708, before he continued his studies with Monsù Alto (d. circa 1712) . In 1712, at the age of seventeen, Locatelli, together with Paolo Anesi (1697-1773), entered the studio of Bernardo Fergloni, a specialist in marine genre painting.

Locatelli broke from the traditions of sacred, historical or mythological themes that were popular among academic artists of the time and instead showcased his skill for combining peasant figures with landscape painting. Andrea Busiri Vici stated, 'Locatelli’s landscapes are remarkable for the sense of solitude they convey despite the fact that they are populated by figures.' A frequent feature throughout his works is the presence of broken trees or stumps, such as the example that runs through the present composition which dates to about 1730. (1)

This work by Locatelli can be compared to other examples by the artist which now reside in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Accession number: WA1851.14 and WA1851.13). In describing the present work Vici notes that ‘the paint is applied to the canvas ground as if it were tempera, like the technique used in the two Oxford canvases’. (1)

Theodora Gertrude Winter (née Barlow) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Dalmahoy Barlow (1883-1964), a British businessman, banker, and art collector and historian. In 1936, she married Carl Winter (1906-1966), a British art historian and museum curator. He worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection of English watercolours and miniature portraits before becoming a director and Morley Curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in 1946. He published Elizabethan Miniatures in 1943 and The British School of Miniature Portrait Painters in 1948.

References:

1. Vici, Andrea Busiri, Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del Settecento (Rome, 1976), pp. 110-11, Cat. No.: 158.