An exceptional Italian landscape by American artist Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1915). Turner was born in Westport, New York, and after moving to Alexandria, Virginia, took his first job as a mechanical draftsman at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. However, his artistic inclinations soon took him far from the drafting table, and in 1876 he traveled to Europe, first to Paris, then to Germany, he became a student at the prestigious Munich Academy, received tutelage from the German realist painter William Liebl and met fellow Americans Frank Duveneck and William Merritt Chase. About 1879, Turner traveled to Rome, Florence, and Venice (where he became known as one of Duveneck’s Boys) to study the Old Masters, and it was here in Italy that he began a close examination of the effects of light and color on his work. He returned to America in 1883, settling in Boston and entering the intimate circle of artist Childe Hassam, as well as the artistic community arising out of poet/painter Celia Thaxter’s art colony at Appledore Island off the coast of New Hampshire.
Over the course of his career Turner held memberships in numerous art associations, including the New York Watercolor Club, the American Watercolor Society (New York City), the Boston Watercolor Club, and the Copley Society of Artists (Boston). His work was showcased and exhibited at a wide variety of venues, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design (New York City), the Boston Art Club, Harcourt Studios (Boston), the Doll and Richards Gallery (Boston; annually), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Peabody Museum (Salem), the Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo; medal awarded, 1901), and the American Watercolor Society (prize awarded, 1908).
Oil on canvas, signed and dated Rome 1894 lower right, title inscribed on verso “Villa Medici” (painting has been relined), and housed in a fine foliate giltwood frame. Dimensions: 30 in H x 55 in W, actual; 41.5 in H x 65.5 in W x 5 in D, framed. The sepia photograph is on the Bosco Terrace and was taken by Gabrielle Hebert, circa 1885-1896. Ref: 8