Gabriele Carelli (1820 – 1900) - Veduta di Firenze

Gabriele Carelli (Naples, 1820 – Mentone, 1900)
View of Florence
Oil on canvas, cm 56 x 89
With frame, cm 73 x 106
Signed at the bottom center G. Carelli

View of Florence, attributed to Gabriele Carelli, portrays the city seen from a hillside, probably from the surroundings of San Miniato, with the Arno crossing the composition and its famous bridges, among which Ponte Vecchio, well recognizable. On the right emerges the Brunelleschi dome and the Giotto Campanile, together with the other towers characteristic of the city skyline. In the foreground a scene of rural life animates the landscape: peasants, a cart drawn by oxen, leafy trees and remnants of ancient walls form a picturesque frame that encloses the urban view in the background, in keeping with the vedutismo taste typical of the nineteenth century. Gabriele Carelli was born in Naples in 1820, into a family of artists linked to the Posillipo School. He trained under his father Raffaele together with his brother Gonsalvo, initially focusing on interior painting with a realist spirit. In 1837 he moved to Rome with his brother, learning from him the watercolor technique and dedicating himself to architectures and ancient relics. He returned to Naples in 1840. In 1847 William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, took him to England to Chatsworth, where he also stayed in London. On his return he stopped in Lombardy, discovering the work of Giovanni Migliara, whose style he later adopted. After a period in Malta in 1850, in 1860 he settled permanently in London, achieving great success with his watercolors exhibited in various British exhibitions. In 1874 he joined the Royal Society of Watercolours. He traveled again in Switzerland and Lombardy in 1872, and received the gold medal in Boston in 1881. Carelli was an excellent landscape painter and painter of architectures, renowned for the seascapes of Naples, Amalfi and the Amalfi Coast, as well as for the evocative interior vedute, as testified by works preserved at the Art Museum of Avellino and at the Bindi Pinacoteca of Giulianova.

The frame is provided as a courtesy, therefore it cannot be a reason for return or complaint.

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