In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Henry Tresham 1750 or 1–1814
- Medium
- Ink and watercolour on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 265 x 411 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996
- Reference
- T08265
Display caption
A great earthquake shook southern Italy on 5 February 1783. It devastated parts of Calabria and Sicily. Tresham appears to have been the only British artist to travel to Sicily after this dramatic event. As a history painter studying in Italy he would have been very familiar with the story of the destruction of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, and he visited the ruins of the ancient city. The 1783 earthquake was a reminder of this event. It must have been in Tresham's mind when he sat sketching among the ruins of Messina in Sicily. The Palazzata was an elegant building facing the city's harbour. A sixteenth century fountain showing Neptune, which still survives, can be seen in the distance.
Gallery label, September 1997
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(41,338)
- garden structures(1,947)
-
- fountain(176)
- ruins(3,720)
-
- townscape(100)
- townscapes / man-made features(21,710)
-
- townscape(3,313)
- universal concepts(6,471)
-
- destruction(391)
- natural phenomena(3,193)
-
- earthquake(7)
- male(960)
- Italy(4,478)
You might like
-
Henry Tresham Messina after the Earthquake: The Nave of a Ruined Church
1783 -
Henry Tresham Studies of Women Reading, and Other Heads
date not known -
Manner of George Barret Senior A Woodland Road, with Figures under Large Trees
date not known -
Heneage Finch, Fourth Earl of Aylesford Hercules in the Cellar. Caricature
date not known -
Nathaniel Hone Portrait of a Lady in a Blue Dress, possibly Mrs Mary Barnardiston
1779 -
Nathaniel Hone Sketch for ‘The Conjuror’
1775 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Thomas Girtin Rome: A Road under a Ruined Archway on the Palatine Hill
c.1794–8 -
Thomas Stothard A Sheet of Studies for a Design for a Frieze, or a Similar Subject
date not known -
Thomas Stothard Design for a Frieze - Boys with a Panther, Putti Bearing Baskets of Flowers, Etc. Below, Rough Sketches of Similar Figures.
date not known -
George Barret Senior River Scene with Watermill, Figures and Cows
date not known -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of the Vatican Meleager
?1792 -
Nathaniel Hone Mary Hone, the Artist’s Wife
?1760 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner Study of the Jason
?1791–2 -
Joseph Mallord William Turner The Head and Torso of the Apollo Belvedere
?1792