Thomas Sautelle Roberts (1760-1826)  Imaginary Landscape wi...

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€5,000 - €7,000

Thomas Sautelle Roberts (1760-1826) 

Imaginary Landscape with River Valley and Mountains,  69cms x 91cms (27" x 36"). (1)

Depicting a wooded river valley, with a town and mountains in the distance, this exquisite landscape can be attributed, with confidence, to Thomas Sautelle Roberts, an artist who shared with his brother Thomas Roberts a keen appreciation of the effects of sunlight and rain on verdant vistas. Based in Waterford, before his untimely death in 1778, Thomas Roberts, son of the architect John Roberts, had established himself as one of the foremost landscape painters in Ireland. Adding the name Thomas to his own, his younger brother Sautelle continued in this same tradition, using soft, delicately-tinted colours to render foliage, buildings and distant mountains, beneath cloudy skies. He also produced accomplished aquatints; mainly views of Cork, Dublin and Waterford. Initially apprenticed to the architect Thomas Ivory, in 1777 Sautelle enrolled in the figure drawing and landscape schools of the Dublin Society. Moving between Dublin and London, in 1789 he began exhibiting at the Royal Academy, and eighteen years later was showing at the British Institution. A fine example of his work, this painting is an imagined landscape, rather than a depiction of a real place. The visual components, of clouds, mountains, buildings, trees and river are all brought together skilfully, with leaves bright in sunlight, blue skies above clouds, and a soft evening glow illuminating the ruins and town in the distance. Resting on the riverbank, close by a small waterfall, are two travellers, one carrying a large bag. The other, dressed in a waistcoat, reclines on the grass. It is an idyllic scene, designed to evoke a peaceful countryside. Although the town has slated houses and a church with a spire, perhaps suggesting an Irish locale, the overall tone and effect is Classical, and Georgic, with the distant mountains and ruins reminiscent of Italy or Greece.

Dr. Peter Murray, 2023