Show me:
and
Clear all filters

  • 33 items
  • 25 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 3,554 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 14 items
  • 4 items
  • 220 items
  • 14,177 items Explore
  • 211 items Explore
  • 1,231 items Explore
  • 8,977 items Explore
  • 5,034 items Explore
  • 62 items Explore
  • 165 items Explore
  • 13,201 items Explore
  • 13,620 items Explore
  • 4,802 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 5 items
  • 149 items Explore
  • 2,002 items Explore
  • 4,759 items Explore
  • 438 items Explore
  • 267 items
  • 103 items Explore
  • 19,992 items Explore
  • 36 items Explore
  • 1,917 items Explore
  • 1,083 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 2,248 items Explore
  • 456 items Explore
  • 918 items Explore
  • 1 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 7 items
  • 20,497 items Explore
  • 800 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 73 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 792 items
  • 20 items
  • 4 items
  • 26 items
  • 61 items
  • 28 items
  • 320 items Explore
  • 6 items
  • 53 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 2 items
  • 2 items
  • 7 items
  • 122 items Explore
  • 119 items
  • 1 items
  • 925 items Explore
  • 724 items
  • 95 items
  • 38,168 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,880 items Explore
  • 1,533 items Explore
  • 403 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 10,773 items Explore
  • 9,683 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1 items
  • 38 items
  • 3 items
  • 4 items
  • 6,781 items Explore
  • 7,364 items Explore
  • 5,239 items Explore
  • 2,005 items Explore
  • 1,195 items Explore
  • 24,695 items Explore
  • 3,664 items Explore
  • 17 items
  • 5 items
  • 334 items
  • 107 items
  • 1 items
  • 3,329 items Explore
  • 24 items Explore
  • 374 items Explore
  • 796 items Explore
  • 1,088 items Explore
  • 514 items Explore
  • 1,821 items Explore
  • 89 items
  • 125 items Explore
  • 6,953 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 108 items
  • 4 items
  • 2 items
  • 128 items
  • 2 items
  • 2,931 items Explore
  • 1,529 items Explore
  • 203 items
  • 90 items
  • 22,318 items Explore
  • 1,347 items Explore
  • 138 items
  • 849 items Explore
  • 32 items
  • 1 items
  • 122 items Explore
  • 40 items
  • 16 items
  • 252 items
  • 314 items
  • 688 items Explore
  • 344 items Explore
  • 2,429 items
  • 2,535 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,395 items Explore
  • 40,362 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,292 items Explore
  • 275 items Explore
  • 8,897 items Explore
  • 31 items
  • 25 items
  • 304 items Explore
  • 777 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 65 items
  • 161 items
  • 50 items
  • 52 items
  • 24,452 items Explore
  • 916 items
  • 65 items
  • 22,850 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 2,338 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 1,029 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 759 items
  • 515 items
  • 4 items
  • 3,308 items Explore
  • 180 items
  • 59 items
  • 455 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 21 items
  • 90 items Explore
  • 76 items
  • 281 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 6 items
  • 133 items
  • 295 items
  • 447 items
  • 283 items
  • 1 items
  • 906 items Explore
  • 276 items Explore
  • 511 items
  • 11,300 items Explore
  • 755 items Explore
  • 6,024 items Explore
  • 8,517 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,987 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 3,725 items Explore
  • 9,182 items Explore
  • 7,883 items Explore
  • 182 items
  • 19 items
  • 152 items
  • 7 items
  • 855 items Explore
  • 19 items
  • 8 items
  • 1,096 items Explore
  • 270 items
  • 1 items
  • 2,266 items
  • 1 items
  • 3,543 items Explore
  • 694 items Explore
  • 18 items
  • 134 items
  • 6,739 items Explore
  • 95 items
  • 18,932 items Explore
  • 3,137 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 7 items
  • 11,005 items Explore
  • 37 items
  • 2 items
  • 21,475 items Explore
  • 35 items
  • 13,325 items Explore
  • 3,459 items Explore
  • 5,644 items Explore
  • 33 items
  • 52,542 items Explore
  • 41 items
  • 646 items Explore
  • 417 items
  • 26,949 items Explore
  • 216 items
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 35 items
  • 27 items
  • 445 items Explore
  • 636 items
  • 217 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 13,765 items Explore
  • 1,395 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 10,260 items
  • 9 items
  • 10 items
  • 14 items
  • 25 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,542 items Explore
  • 913 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 316 items
  • 504 items Explore
  • 42 items
  • 2,289 items Explore
  • 1,671 items Explore
  • 15 items
  • 1,877 items Explore
  • 150 items
  • 80 items
  • 766 items Explore
  • 3,089 items Explore
  • 40 items
  • 17 items
  • 12 items
  • 10,670 items Explore
  • 23,808 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 1 items
  • 2 items
  • 41 items
  • 1,379 items
  • 177 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 92 items
  • 2 items
  • 1 items
  • 13,587 items Explore
  • 3,747 items Explore
  • 2,904 items Explore
  • 4,537 items Explore
  • 22 items
  • 30 items
  • 6,910 items Explore
  • 4,842 items Explore
  • 2,300 items Explore
  • 2,818 items Explore
  • 2 items
  • 1,899 items Explore
  • 191 items
  • 223 items Explore
  • 421 items Explore
  • 6,113 items Explore
  • 8,729 items Explore
  • 1,837 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 1 items
  • 5,943 items Explore
  • 3,354 items Explore
  • 11,122 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 86 items
  • 11 items
  • 2,517 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 24 items
  • 51 items
  • 6 items
  • 1 items
  • 4,148 items Explore
  • 611 items Explore
  • 74 items
  • 17 items
  • 155 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 95 items Explore
  • 458 items
  • 2 items
  • 996 items Explore
  • 3,613 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 5 items
  • 10,564 items Explore
  • 48 items Explore
  • 3 items
  • 7 items
  • 42 items
  • 3 items
  • 13,808 items Explore
  • 1,167 items Explore
  • 92 items
  • 10,568 items Explore
  • 1,921 items
  • 18 items
  • 6,073 items Explore
  • 21 items
  • 12,948 items Explore
  • 1,418 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 6,185 items Explore
  • 14,897 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 1,667 items Explore
  • 181 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 16 items
  • 5,681 items Explore
  • 12,285 items Explore
  • 48 items
  • 25 items
  • 2 items
  • 3 items
  • 7,194 items Explore
  • 357 items Explore
  • 13 items
  • 6 items
  • 103 items Explore
  • 7 items
  • 5 items
  • 485 items
  • 688 items Explore
  • 8,409 items Explore
  • 63 items
  • 1 items
  • 7,347 items Explore
  • 5 items
  • 26 items
  • 5,034 items Explore
  • 428 items
  • 339 items Explore
  • 12,713 items Explore
  • 55 items
  • 20 items
  • 7 items
  • 4 items
  • 325 items Explore
  • 427 items
  • 458 items
  • 3,687 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 1,243 items Explore
  • 2,503 items Explore
  • 1,626 items Explore
  • 36 items
  • 1,139 items Explore
  • 97 items Explore
  • 24 items
  • 225 items Explore
  • 80,552 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 3,139 items Explore
  • 2,820 items Explore
  • 24 items
  • 5,352 items Explore
  • 1,831 items Explore
  • 4 items
  • 17,513 items Explore
  • 4,931 items Explore
  • 1 items
  • 7 items
  • 631 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 31 items
  • 1 items
  • 76 items
  • 29 items
  • 86 items
  • 3 items
  • 1,175 items Explore
  • 109 items
  • 805 items
  • 13,224 items Explore
  • 27 items
  • 13 items
  • 1,709 items Explore
  • 217 items
  • 17,039 items Explore
  • 85 items
  • 17 items
  • 1 items
  • 8 items
  • 324 items
  • 2 items
  • 632 items Explore
  • 1,592 items Explore
  • 8 items
  • 1,129 items Explore
  • 389 items
  • 2 items
  • 354 items

Select a time period

Or choose a specific year

Clear all filters

The Valley of the Nera

Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (1748 - 1810)

Category

Art / Drawings and watercolours

Date

1748 - 1810

Materials

Watercolour and bodycolour (partly varnished) on paper

Measurements

781 x 1181 mm (30 3/4 x 46 1/2 in)

Place of origin

Umbria

Order this image

Collection

Stourhead, Wiltshire

NT 730805

Summary

Watercolour and bodycolour (partly varnished), on paper, The Valley of Nera by Abraham Louis Ducros (Yverdon, Switzerland 1748 – Lausanne 1810). The valley, surrounded by mountains, is seen during a storm; a castle is struck by lightning.

Full description

E. K. Waterhouse once observed that the Ducros drawings at Stourhead are the only known group by this artist in England. Indeed, Richard Colt Hoare had a profound admiration for his work (see his comments in Modern Wiltshire, 1822), and that he was on friendly terms with the artist is indicated by the inscription on the back of NT 730807 in this series: ‘pour Monsieur Hoare’. Also a letter of Ducros to Colt Hoare is preserved among the Stourhead archives, from Malta on 22 August 1800, he proposes opening a subscription for a series of views of that country, where, he comments: 'Je retrouve Claude Laurin et Vernet a chaque instant'. No views of Malta are at Stourhead, and the eleven drawings listed by Colt Hoare are of Rome, Tivoli and the countryside as far north as Lake Trasimene. For a brief account of Ducros, a Swiss who worked in Italy, mainly in Rome, from around 1770-1805 (see Bell Walpole Society XXIII, 1935 & see D. Agassiz, A.L.Ducros, 1927). In an appendix Agassiz lists paintings and drawings by Ducros in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, which include preliminary sketches for Stourhead watercolours. Among them is a title which suggests similarity to a drawing at Coughton (NT), in some way confirming that the Neapolitan scenes at Coughton are indeed by Ducros (the artist settled in Naples around 1793 after his expulsion, together with other French residents following the death of Louis XVI, from Rome). Agassiz quotes a letter from P-L de la Rive to Mme de la Rive, Rome 16th February 1785 (p.11): 'Son talent pour la peinture est bien reel mais il se fait aider prodigieusement par des peintres d'histoire pour ses figures et par des architectes pour ses monuments'. Colt Hoare distinguished four drawings, probably of around 1786: Trasimene (NT 730815), Tivoli (NT 730810), the Tomb of the Plautii (NT 730817) and Civita Castellana (NT 730807), which were the earliest (on 21 February 1787 Colt Hoare wrote to Hugh Hoare to say that 'last year' Ducros had done these four drawings, which had been sent to England) to enter his collection and among which he notices a progressive strength from the first to the last. Whether or not this is apparent, a comparison with the remainder of the drawings suggests that these four are less dramatic and colourful and would therefore appear to be earlier. 'A dignity of design and depth of tone' is how Bell describes the artist's mature works. It is not clear whether Colt Hoare, in his list of the other seven drawings, is intending to present a chronological sequence as he did with the first four. This, however, is the order in which he lists them: Villa of Maecenas (NT 730808), Interior of the Colosseum (NT 730814), Bridge of Augustus (NT 730811). There is a drawing of the subject in one of Colt Hoare's folio volumes. It is possible that Ducros may have made finished watercolours from Colt Hoare's drawings, Valley of the Nera (NT 730805), River by an Ilex Grove (NT 730816), Arch of Constantine (NT 730812) and Falls of the Velino (NT 730806). It was Colt Hoare's contention, and his opinion is clearly of value on the subject, that it was Ducros who was responsible for the change in the technique of watercolour painting in England, that is the change from Sandby to Turner and De Wint (as in 'a rivaliser avec la peinture a l'huile'). The later series of drawings at Stourhead, which have bodycolour and varnish added, and like the earlier ones are framed without mounts, approach closely to oil painting. In view of this technique it is difficult to understand why Ducros's detractors, as they were described by Colt Hoare, questioned the durability of these drawings. Colt Hoare mentions that they have retained their brilliance for 30 years; it can be said today that they have lost little in 200 years.

Makers and roles

Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (1748 - 1810), photographer

View more details