Carlo Bossoli
Davesco (Switzerland), 1815–Turin, 1884
Balaklava, 1857
gouache with watercolor on paper laid down on canvas
Florian Carr Fund, 2011.141.1
Balaklava, part of the modern city of Sevastopol, is a fabled historic port on the Crimean Peninsula. Bossoli, who grew up in the area, has here transformed the surrounding landscape into one of fantastic sweep, idyllic beauty, and poetic resonance. Bossoli specialized in such romantic elaboration of both exotic and familiar locales, enjoying considerable success with collectors of the period. Like the large-scale watercolor of Lago Maggiore by Salomon Corrodi (previous slide), this watercolor demonstrates the continued vitality and appeal of the eighteenth-century Italian tradition of topographic views.
