MARLOW, William - b. 1740 London, d. 1813 Twickenham - WGA

MARLOW, William

(b. 1740 London, d. 1813 Twickenham)

English painter. From c. 1756 to 1761 he was a pupil of Samuel Scott, the topographical and marine painter; he also studied at the St Martin’s Lane Academy, London. Throughout his career Marlow made oils and watercolours of London views, for example Near Westminster Bridge, Evening (London, Guildhall Art Gallery), which shows his balanced, classical sense of composition, sensitivity to lighting effects and smooth handling of oil paint.

Between 1765 and 1766 Marlow travelled in France and Italy, making numerous drawings of ruins, which provided the subjects for many paintings finished on his return to London. An Oxcart in the Grotto of Posillipo (c. 1770; New Haven, CT, Yale Center for British Art) exemplifies his bold, blue-toned watercolour style, with washes applied in loose blotches to emphasize the picturesque roughness of masonry and terrain. The handling has much in common with Canaletto, whom Marlow copied; a letter of 1771 from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann records that two views of Verona by Marlow were mistakenly sold as Canalettos.

Marlow specialized in souvenirs of the Grand Tour, portraits of country houses, seascapes and river scenes. He visited many parts of Britain and Ireland in search of subjects, such as Powys Castle, Montgomeryshire (University of Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery). He exhibited at the Incorporated Society of Artists from 1767, was made a Fellow in 1771 and Vice-President in 1778. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, from 1788 to 1807 but never sought membership.

A Distant View of Rome from the North

Marlow is said to have toured France and Italy on the advice of the Duchess of Northumberland. He reached Rome in February 1766, and judging from the large number of drawings, watercolours and sketches he made in Italy it is evident that he travelled in the Campagna around the city, and visited Venice, Florence, and Naples. Marlow probably returned to England at the end of 1766, and from 1767 regularly exhibited Italian and French subjects at the Society of Artists and Royal Academy in London.

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A Ship Ablaze at Night in a Town Harbour

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View of Saint Peter's, Rome

This unusual view of St. Peters’s, Rome, seen from behind rather than the more standard frontal view, was painted by Marlow in 1783, long after he had returned to England from his travels in Italy. A watercolour by the artist of the same view, now in the British Museum probably served as his basis for the oil painting. The viewpoint is taken from the Via Aurelia Antica looking towards the Vatican Walls and the great dome of the Basilica and, in the distance, the dome of San Carlo al Corso.

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View of the Bay of Naples from Posillipo

Marlow visited Naples in 1765. Whilst he was there he made a number of drawings which he worked up into paintings on his return to England in 1766. The present composition shows the view of the Bay of Naples from Posillipo, the Vomero Hill with the Monastery of San Martino and the Castel Sant’Elmo beyond. In the seventeenth century the area was a popular holiday resort where villas and palaces were built, but by the eighteenth century it was in decline.

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