(Modena 1700–1777 Naples)
The Bay of Trapani,
oil on canvas, 24 x 76.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
commissioned by John, Lord Brudenell, later Marquess of Monthermer (1735–1770) between 1756 and 1760;
thence by descent to his sister Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry (inscription on the reverse: B. Q. 9);
thence by descent to their younger son Lord Henry Scott, later Montagu, 1st Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (1776–1845);
thence by descent;
their sale, Christie’s, London, 2 May 1958, lot 49 (as Antonio Joli);
with Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, London;
Collection of Lady Violet Mildmay, June 1958;
sale, Christie’s, Rome, 2 October 1992, lot 169;
Private European collection

Literature:
F. Russell, in: The Treasure Houses of Britain. Five hundred years of private patronage and art collecting, ed. by G. Jackson-Stops, New Haven 1985, p. 256, not illustrated;
L. Salerno, I pittori di vedute in Italia (1580–1830), Rome 1991, p. 257, cat. no. 75.68, illustrated p. 258;
R. Middione, Antonio Joli, Soncino 1995, p. 29, p. 30 fig. 17;
M. Manzelli, Antonio Joli: opera pittorica, Venice 1999, p. 61, cat. no. B.32, fig. 11;
R. Toledano, Antonio Joli: Modena 1700–1777 Napoli, Turin 2006, p. 295, cat. no. V.V.XXIII

This view painting, or veduta, was commissioned by John, Lord Brudenell, later Marquess of Monthermer (1735–1770), as part of a series of thirty-eight paintings depicting sites he visited on the Grand Tour in Italy between 1754 to 1760. The artist Antonio Joli met John, Lord Brudenell in Naples or Rome, and may have employed by him as early as 1754.

Sixteen pictures of the series are presently at Montagu House, Beaulieu (eight of Naples, two of Messina, together with view paintings of Agrigento, Palermo, Malta, Florence, as well as Tarascon and Avignon – places Brudenell no doubt saw en route to Genoa in 1754). Eight remain in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Bowhill, while eleven more, including the present painting, were sold in 1958: these included view paintings of Naples from Ischia, Messina, Marsala, Catania, Syracuse and Venice.

Brudenell was sent to study in Paris in 1751 and three years later, he travelled on to Italy, visiting Rome briefly in the spring of 1756 on the way to Naples, from where he made an exceptional and thorough exploration of the classical sites of Southern Italy and Sicily. Brudenell returned to Rome in 1758 and began to acquire sculptures and paintings. Additionally, he sat for Pompeo Batoni (see fig. 1) and Anton Raphael Mengs. Following his return to England in 1761, he continued to add to his collection, which he kept at Montagu House in London, where it achieved some acclaim. As he never married and remained childless, his property was inherited by his nephews, the sons of his sister Elizabeth, Countess of Dalkeith, later Duchess of Buccleuch.