Thomas Patch attribuito

(1725 - 1782)

oil on canvas, framed, some defects

117x200 cm

Born in England in the first half of the eighteenth century and destined to embark on the career of a pharmacist at the behest of his father, a very deserved doctor, Thomas Patch abandon his native land in 1747, at just 22 years old and without ending his studies, for Italy, where he takes refuge at first in Rome. Here he had the opportunity to meet not only his compatriot and painter Joshua Reynolds, but also the well -known French landscapeist Joseph Vernet, in whose flourishing and activated workshop he formed and worked, imitating his style and replicating the subjects, in particular the suggestive views of Tivoli, until 1755, the year in which our artist was forced to leave the eternal city on order Court of the Holy Inquisition due to its alleged homosexuality. It is then installed in Florence, where it will remain until the death that came in 1782. In this city she made a strong friendship with Sir Thomas Mann, which introduced it to the community of so-called "Anglo-Bacers", the English tourists who came to Italy driven by the fashion of the "Grand Tour", some of which then ended up placing themselves definitively in Florence. And in fact, in the early years of its permuement in the Tuscan city, between the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, patch was known and appreciated as a painter by creating numerous caricatured portraits of the exponents of this lively community. In Florence, however, he also had the opportunity to directly study the work of the great Italian masters of the Renaissance, remaining particularly impressed by the works of Masaccio and Fra 'Bartolommeo to the door, whose paintings also created a series of important engravings. In this same period, he also resumed his seer's activity, who had well experienced in Rome, as we said, under the aegis of Vernet. It is above all to this production that Thomas Patch owes its prestige and its international fame. Some of his views of Florence were purchased directly by Giorgio III for the British royal collections, where they are still found, others could be admired until a few years ago in the museum of "Florence as it was". The beautiful "panoramic view of Florence from the Bellosguardo hill", presented by Maison Bibelot, although not signed, seems to be able to be reasonably inserted on a stylistic basis in this area of Thomas Path's activity. The hypothesis is further supported by the comparison with the canvas of the same subject, this signed and dated 1775, which today is part of the collections of the County Museum in Los Angeles in California. In fact, the very high pictorial quality with delicate colorism and the wise spatial analysis. The version proposed here is also appreciated for the lyricism of the representation, on the left of the painting and absent in the version of the Californian museum, of the gardens and cultivated fields, which at that time still surrounded Florence outside the walls.