John Gadsby Chapman

(American, 1808-1890)

Castel di Leva, near Rome

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, UK.

In 1828 Chapman travelled to Rome and Florence to continue his artistic education, which had begun in Washington D.C. and in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He returned to America in 1831 and found success with a series of colonial-era American historical paintings which led to a commission to paint the rotunda in the United States Capitol building in 1837. The Baptism of Pocahontas was installed in 1840 to great acclaim. Chapman produced innumerable engravings for Harper Brothers publications before returning to Italy with his family and settling in Rome in 1848. Inspired by the rural Campania, he sold his views of the local topography and inhabitants to American tourists. In 1859 a correspondent for the Crayon described Chapman's work in Italy: 'During Mr. Chapman's residence abroad he has been faithfully at work; he has explored the environs of Rome for artistic material, and has made himself thoroughly acquainted with the people and scenery of that region, the result of which is a series of pictures of Italian life, character, and landscape in almost every style of art... His compositions illustrate the picturesque aspects of Italian peasant life, associated with the ruins of the Campagna and with the landscape charms of the mountains near Rome, and they constitute some of the most prized souvenirs of an American traveller's sojourn in Italy.'¹

The present lot depicts the Castel di Leva, a small village around eight miles south of Rome. The settlement was described by William Gell forty years previously: 'At present the buildings here consist of the church and a farm-house, with large outhouses for hay, called in the Roman states Fenili ... A religious festivity is held here in the month of May, at which the lower classes of all the neighbouring villages are accustomed to attend. These poor people often pass the previous night in the fields near the church, bringing with them wine and provisions, with which they regale themselves so copiously, that on the day of the feast a scene of indescribable riot and confusion almost inevitably ensues.'<sup>2

1</sup>Crayon 6, December 1859, pp. 379-380.
¹Sir William Gell, The Topography of Rome and its Vicinity, London, 1834, vol. 1 pp. 277-278.