Bull-Hunting

landscape

Although clever Zuccarelli was fond of landscapes he always had a slight nostalgia for portraiture. In vain was he stunted and distorted, in vain was he enclosed in his isolation, in vain was this longing suppressed by the freer, fresher and more fluid talent of the born landscape painter; he stood out from among the mass of his fellow artists. He had a talent, rare among landscape painters for portraiture, too.

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About the Artist

Francesco Zuccarelli

1702 – 1788

He was a Florentine landscape painter who worked principally in Venice and England. He met Richard Wilson in Venice in 1751 and they exchanged paintings; in 1752 he went to London and remained until 1762. He returned to London in 1765 and stayed until 1771, being elected a Founder-Member of the Royal Academy in 1768. His light and facile style of landscape painting, with picturesque peasantry, was very popular in England and was preferred to the graver style of Wilson. There are several examples in the Royal Collection, Windsor, and others in Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Museum), Glasgow, London (National Gallery), Manchester, Oxford , Venice and elsewhere. London (Tate Gallery) has his grand historical landscape, Cadmus Killing the Dragon (1765).

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