Frederic, Lord Leighton, 'View in Capri', perhaps 1859

Frederic Leighton came from a wealthy family and travelled extensively from a young age, receiving his artistic training on the continent. After settling in London in 1859, he continued to make annual visits abroad, retaining a particular affection for the art and landscape of Italy. In 1857 he wrote to his sister from Algiers: ‘I shall spend my next winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which I am attached beyond measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a hold on my heart that no other country ever can have (except, of course, my own).’

The artist first visited Capri during the summer of 1859 and remained on the island for several weeks. His extended travels always provided him with a rich sourcebook of subjects and motifs, but this sojourn led to a particularly intense period of creativity. Leighton produced dozens of botanical drawings, landscape studies and plein-air oil sketches, recording numerous areas of the island from different viewpoints and exploring changing light effects depending on the time of day.

View in Capri was taken from a high viewpoint, looking down towards two whitewashed houses. These are simple in structure – cubic or rectangular – with characteristic domed roofs and small chimneys. A third, lower house is also visible beneath the higher of the other two. A group of trees occupies the foreground, with clumps of shrubs giving way to a clearing on the right. This leads the eye to a higher area of land on the right of the composition, occupied by an area densely populated with olive trees.

The land falls and then rises towards a rocky outcrop in the middle ground, and, further into the distance, we see a vast promontory, which eventually falls into the sea at the far left of the painting. At its apex, a tiny dark shadow hints at the presence of a building of some kind. It is perhaps the hermitage of Santa Maria a Cetrella in Anacapri, or, more likely, one of the many tiny forts and lookout points surviving on the island. Leighton captures the intensity of the summer heat in his choice of muted tones, such as olive greens and soft browns, which reflect the barren, arid landscape.

Such sketches were not designed to be sold as finished works of art, but rather as studies painted from nature that would test the artist’s powers of observation. Some might later find their way into larger, more ambitious compositions, whereas others were simply painted for Leighton’s own pleasure. In this respect, the artist was following a long line of painters before him, such as Corot and Valenciennes, who honed their craft by making similarly free plein-air sketches, often travelling to Italy to do so.

View in Capri can be spotted in a photograph of Leighton’s studio taken after he died in 1896, where the walls are lined with many other similar landscape sketches. These were sold at auction in July of that year, and this work was most likely included in that studio sale.