View of Castel Gandolfo (c. 1870s): Art, History and Details

View of Castel Gandolfo (c. 1870s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Myles Birket Foster (British, 1825–1899).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In his watercolors, Foster depicted an idealized life in rural England. His work was appreciated as Pre-Raphaelite in its intricate detail, but was without the harsh color and unorthodox subjects that made the brotherhood controversial. Foster’s watercolors proved enormously appealing to the Victorians; each new work was eagerly anticipated, and color lithographs after his watercolors helped popularize his imagery. While the English countryside was the inspiration for much of his work, he traveled abroad regularly, and made several trips to Italy in the 1870s. A view of peasants picnicking at the gates of Castel Gandolfo overlooking Lake Albano is the subject of this watercolor.

Object facts

• Title: View of Castel Gandolfo
• Date: c. 1870s
• Creator attribution: Myles Birket Foster (British, 1825–1899)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16.5 x 23.8 cm (6 1/2 x 9 3/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1946.285

Collection credit

In memory of Ralph King, gift of Mrs. Ralph King; Ralph T. Woods, Charles G. King; and Frances King Schafer

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William M. “Gift in Memory of Ralph King.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 2 (1947).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.