Marco Ricci (1676/79-1729/30) - Boslandschap met Struikrovers - NO RESERVE

Artist: Marco Ricci (1676/79–1729/30)
Title: Forest Landscape with Stray Shrubs
Medium and support: brown-stained ink on hand-made paper with watermark
Dimensions: 36 × 53.5 cm; with frame 45 × 60 cm

Inscriptions and marks: collecting mark W.Y.O. lower right and blind stamp T.L. lower left; on the mount “Ricci marco.” and “1680–1730”; verso the name inscription “Palmieri”

Provenance:
- Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830), London, collecting mark Lugt 2445;
- William Young Ottley (1771–1836), London, collecting mark Lugt 2663;
- Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (1805–1888), Rugby, who donated the sheet to the Rugby School Art Museum; later deaccessioned from this collection. Auction record: Christie’s, London, South Kensington, 6 December 2012, sale 7893, lot 69.
- Dutch private collection

Documentation: entered in RKDimages Lite under Marco Ricci, registration number 1698191

Supplied with Art Historical and Technical Research Report Vandenberg Fine Art BV

Artist
Marco Ricci, from Belluno, worked as a painter, draftsman, etcher and decorative designer. His training probably took place with his uncle Sebastiano Ricci, with whom he collaborated throughout his career. In 1705 a collaboration with Alessandro Magnasco is documented. In 1708 he left for England with Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, where he produced opera décors and interior decorations. A second English sojourn followed from 1712, together with Sebastiano. In 1716 they returned to Venice.

Ricci’s oeuvre includes forest landscapes with travelers, pastoral scenes, storms, winter views and architectural fantasies. His work links North Italian landscape traditions with knowledge of Dutch and Flemish landscape art. Through his painted, drawn and etched landscapes he contributed to the development of landscape as an independent genre in eighteenth-century Venice.

Object description
A wooded setting with large, gnarled trees surrounds a compact group of figures in the lower middle register. Several figures raise or stretch their arms; on the right a figure with a heavy burden bends forward. A pack animal is positioned among the foreground figures. Roots, rocky ground forms, low vegetation and broken trunks fill the surrounding terrain. A light opening to the distance remains between the trees.
The subject is predominantly brown in tone. Darker, locally greyer accents concentrate in the figures, the bark of trees and shaded vegetation.

Technique and material analysis
The drawing combines fine contour lines and short hatching with diluted ink washes. Curved lines follow the form of trunks and branches; series of short strokes suggest foliage masses. Condensation of lines and washes distinguishes dark vegetation from the lighter background. The paper color remains locally part of the composition.
The support is hand-made paper with a watermark. The sheet is mounted with gray and double red borderlines. The name “Ricci marco.” and the years “1680–1730” belong to the historical mount annotations and do not constitute a dating of production. The marks T.L. and W.Y.O. are collection marks. The separate verso inscription “Palmieri” remains distinguished as a historical name reference.

Composition and formal analysis
Space is organized by the inclined trunk near the center and the branched group of trees on the right. Their overlapping branches form an irregular arch above the figure group. The alternation of vertical trunks, diagonally growing directions and drooping foliage divides the pictorial plane into irregular openings.
The relatively light zone around the figures contrasts with the more densely worked vegetation. Overlaps and diminishing detail toward the background enhance the sense of depth. Because of the scale difference between trees and figures, the action remains within a predominantly landscape composition.

Stylistic and art-historical context
The combination of a forest interior with a scene of an ambush aligns with the Italian Baroque “bandit landscape,” in which rugged nature and human action are interconnected. This image tradition took shape in the seventeenth century, for example in Salvator Rosa. Irregular trees, rocky terrain and small figure groups belong to the repertoire used in this context. The described sheet joins this through emphasis on irregular tree forms and the relatively small scale of the narrative scene.
The alternation of elaborately treated foreground motifs and an open view links this rugged forest scene with the principles of the arranged landscape. The combination of line drawing and brown wash also has a place within Ricci’s drawing oeuvre. This correspondence situates the working method within an existing drawing practice; the historical name inscriptions remain discrete data within the attribution history.

Comparable artists
Salvator Rosa, Alessandro Magnasco, Claude Lorrain, Herman van Swanevelt

Condition
The paper shows uneven discoloration and scattered brown stains. There are several old paper repairs, both along the edges and within the image. On the backside there are local paper strips and larger paper reinforcements. The work is mounted in a gilded frame behind glass.

Conclusion
Forest Landscape with Stray Shrubs by Marco Ricci combines a meticulously worked forest motif with a small narrative figure group within the Italian Baroque landscape tradition. The collection marks and mount inscriptions document the English collection history and the historical naming. The material condition is characterized by discoloration and several old paper repairs.
The work “Forest Landscape with Stray Shrubs” sits in a gilded wooden frame behind glass.

Total dimensions: 45x60 cm
Medium dimensions: 36x53.5 cm

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