VERONA || Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Albert Goodwin (British painter) 1845 - 1932
The Flower Market in the Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy, s.d.
pencil, pen and ink, watercolour and bodycolour, with gum arabic 
37.9 x 54 cm. (14.5 x 21.25 in.)
signed 'Albert Goodwin.' (lower right) and inscribed 'Verona' (lower left)
private collection

Catalogue Note Christie's
Goodwin visited Verona in 1872 in the course of a three-month artistic tour of Italy organised by John Ruskin (1819-1900). Goodwin had been introduced to Ruskin a few years earlier, probably in 1869, and had also become close friends with Ruskin's cousin Joan and her husband Arthur Severn, who were the other members of the 1872 touring party. They visited Verona towards the end of their tour, when they had already travelled from Switzerland down through Pisa and Florence to Rome, and were in the process of journeying back up through the Italian peninsula towards Venice.

The Piazza delle Erbe has always been the focal point of the city of Verona, standing as it does on the site of the Roman forum. The piazza gains its name from the herbs which have been sold for hundreds of years in its market, alongside fruit, vegetables and the flowers after which Goodwin's watercolour is titled.

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Albert Goodwin was a notable English landscape painter specialising in watercolours. His work shows the influences of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Goodwin was born in Maidstone in Kent, the son of a builder and one of 9 children. After leaving school he became an apprentice draper. His exceptional artistic ability was recognised at an early age and he went on to study with the Pre-Raphaelite artists Arthur Hughes and Ford Madox Brown - the latter predicting that he would become "one of the greatest landscape painters of the age".
At the age of 15 his first painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy. He became an associate member of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) in 1876. He was championed by famed art critic John Ruskin who took him on a tour of Europe, where he made many sketches from nature which were later turned into watercolours. During his lifetime he traveled extensively throughout Britain and Europe, and visited many other countries.
Goodwin was a prolific artist, producing over 800 works and continuing to paint well into his eighties. His wide variety of landscape subjects reflected his love of travel and show the influence of Turner, with whom he felt a strong affinity. In later works he developed experimental techniques such as using ink over water color to achieve atmospheric lighting effects. His works are also an important record of social history.