Near Sorrento, John Brett
Link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project; high resolution downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, UK.
I got to see the sea and curve of the land from the cliffs of Sorrento when I visited the Amalfi Coast some years ago, and that was astonishingly beautiful, but I’ve never seen the area from the sea.
Here, John Brett gives us a striking view, vibrant with light and atmosphere, in watercolor and gouache. (The description says “bodycolour”, but I’m thinking the museum is using that term in the general sense of opaque watercolor, rather than the more specific meaning of watercolor pigment in hide glue).
I love the way Brett has carved out the prominences of the cliff face with light and texture, and the nuanced way he has defined the distant mountains in considerable detail without bringing them forward.
