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Italy: Porto Fino. Unfinished view of Porto Fino on the Gulf of Genoa, seen from the sea.
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Reference number
Adam vol.57/162
Purpose
Italy: Porto Fino. Unfinished view of Porto Fino on the Gulf of Genoa, seen from the sea.
Aspect
Perspective
Inscribed
Inscribed in ink in Robert Adam's hand Sketch of the point & part of the Town of Porto Fino from the Bay and Taken on the spot 18 January 1755; and in ink 162
Signed and dated
- 18 January 1755
Medium and dimensions
Pencil, pen186 x 229
Hand
Robert Adam
Notes
This view was made after Robert Adam sailed from Genoa to Sestri Levante on 18 January 1755, disembarking at '... Lerici the next night after rowing the whole day along the coast with a sea as smooth as glass and no wind' (J. Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle in Edinburgh & Rome, London, 1962, p.124). The boat with oars and a mast shown in pencil in the middle distance may be the boat to which Adam is referring. This drawing parallels in intimacy and immediacy Robert Adam's drawing of the view from his window at the Casa Guarnieri in Rome in Adam vol.57/151. After this drawing, there follow 17 blank album leaves.
Literature
A. A. Tait, 'An Adam Volume in Sir John Soane's Museum' in The Burlington Magazine129, November 1987, p.743A. A. Tait, Robert Adam: drawings and imagination, Cambridge, 1993, fig.11.Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the sketch to the finished drawing catalogue of an exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum, 1996, cat.3
Level
Drawing
Exhibition history
Robert Adam, The Creative Mind: from the Sketch to the Finished Drawing, Sir John Soane's Museum, 4 October 1996 - 1 March 1997; The Frick Collection, New York, December 1997 - April 1998; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, May - June 1998; The Octagon Museum, Washington, July 1998 - January 1999; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, February - March 1999
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
Digitisation of the Drawings Collection has been made possible through the generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk