sintra, Portugal

John Varley (1778-1842)
View of Sintra, Portugal

Signed on reverse of former mount: Rock of Lisbon/from a sketch/by Colonel Landman/J. Varley
Watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and stopping out
26 by 36.4 cm., 10 ¼ by 14 ¼ in.

This is a distant view of Sintra which stands on the coast west of Lisbon. The two conical towers are of the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, the ancestral seat of the House of Avis. They were added to the original palace in the eighteenth century.

This may be the view of Sintra exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water-colours in 1841 as no. 322. Varley never left the British Isles but exhibited a number of European views based on the drawings of amateur artists or soldiers in this case a `Colonel Landman'. This is probably Colonel George Landmann (1779-1854) who served in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsula War. In 1818 he published 'Historical, Military, and Picturesque Observations in Portugal.'

Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Christie's, 19th March 1968, lot 38