
Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
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Sold for £20,000 inc. premium
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Head of Sale
Few works executed in gouache are recorded by van der Ulft, although he did numerous drawings and wash studies. The scale and grouping of the figures in the present work, many wearing clothing coloured either blue or red, recall Ulft's gouache of the Tower of Babel sold at Sotheby's, London, 7 & 8 July 2011, lot 21 where the architectural subject is taken from a similarly raised vantage point. There are also comparisons to the signed gouache of an Italianate seaport sold at Christie's, Paris, 27 November 2002, lot 18.
Bernini's colonnade and fountain are included in front of St Peter's, (giving a terminus ante quem of 1675), but the general topography is somewhat freely interpreted, showing the Cathedral on a low plain with the ground rising in front of it. This suggests the architectural information may have been based on a print; in fact despite his penchant for Italian subjects it is thought that van der Ulft may never have visited Italy.