Sybil’s Temple at Tivoli

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Francis Nicholson was born in Pickering, Yorkshire, but lived in Whitby, Knaresborough and Ripon, before moving to London in around 1803. After studying under local artists in Yorkshire, he spent some 30 years painting portraits and animals, mainly in oil. However, from the mid-1780 he turned to watercolour, sending his watercolour landscapes to Royal Academy exhibitions from 1789 and supplying topographical views to ‘Copper Plate Magazine’. He experimented with different methods and processes of watercolour painting and published ‘The Practice of Drawing and Painting Landscapes from Nature in Watercolour’ (1820). Nicholson was also a popular teacher. In 1804 he became a founder-member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours.

Places

Italy, Aniene Cascade, River Aniene, Tivoli, Tivoli: Temple of the Sybil, Tivoli: Temple of Vesta

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, hill, waterfall, man, walking stick, house, temple (religious building)

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

Francis Nicholson (1753 - 1844)

Title

Sybil’s Temple at Tivoli

Date

c. 1800-1844

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 28.00 cm, width: 43.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Gilbert Davis, July 1964

Provenance

Collection of actor and art collector Gilbert Davis (1899-1983) (and on loan to the Ministry of Works from 1952); from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in July 1964

GAC number

1787