Copley Fielding
British, b.1787, d.1855
An Italian Landscape
- Watercolour
- Purchased, 1970
- 780 x 1015 x 25mm
- 70/19
Location: W A Sutton Gallery
Tags: buildings (structures), children (people by age group), horses (animals), lakes (bodies of water), men (male humans), natural landscapes, people (agents), reflections (perceived properties), trees, women (female humans)
Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding was one of Britain’s leading watercolour painters, admired for his carefully composed and richly detailed landscapes. Although he never visited Italy, he painted idealised Italian scenes inspired by the seventeenth century French artist Claude Lorrain, whose vision of the classical countryside profoundly shaped European landscape painting. Rather than depicting a specific place, this work evokes an imagined Italy: an idyllic landscape of luxuriant trees and foliage, distant hills and figures resting in both sunlight and shadow. Its harmonious composition and serene atmosphere belong to a tradition of idealised landscape that continued to influence artists well into the nineteenth century.
(Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection 19 September 2026 –30 May 2027)
