The Door of a Grotto

William Marlow

ca. 1765–66 · Watercolor and graphite · Drawings and Prints

Marlow made this free watercolor sketch during a trip through France and Italy. Spontaneous brushwork and bright washes evoke strong sunlight playing across stone, contrasted with a shadowed recess covered by a rough wooden door. The artist’s travel likely was supported by the duchess of Northumberland, since Marlow later made many finished oils of Italian subjects for this English patroness. The freshness of the drawing is an early demonstration of watercolor’s expressive potential and anticipates groundbreaking innovations that would be made twenty years later by the British artists Thomas Jones and John Robert Cozens in Rome and Naples.

Artist

William Marlow

Date

ca. 1765–66

Medium

Watercolor and graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Jeffrey L. Berenson and Raymond Lifchez Living Trust Gifts, 2014