Terms and conditions of use
The Italian family - Ferry on the river Ninfa
1834
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 87.3 × 126.0 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Rome, Italy
- Inscription
- formerly inscribed in paint l.l.: Penry Williams / 1834 Roma
- Accession Number
- p.301.10-1
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased by the Commissioners of Fine Arts for Victoria, 1864
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Not on display
- Subjects (general)
- Daily Life Human Figures Landscapes
- Subjects (specific)
- boatmen families (kinship groups) ferries (vessels) Italy (nation) punts (watercraft) river crossing (activity) rivers
- Provenance
-
Purchased from the artist by Mrs Eliza Emily Huskisson (1777–1856), widow of William Huskisson MP (1770–1830), c. 1840; her collection, until her death in 1856; possibly Estate of Eliza Emily Huskisson, until 1857; included in the sale, Christie’s, London, 20 June 1857, no. 199; from whom acquired by G. Thomas; sold to William Henry Forman Esq. (1794–1869), Pippbrook House, Dorking, before 1862; his collection, until 1864[1]; sold by Mrs Forman, Christie’s, London, 27 June 1864, no. 59; from where purchased, by Sir Charles Eastlake, for the NGV, 1864.[2]
[1] Forman appears to have also owned the 1831 study/sketch(?) of this painting, now in the Hospitalfield House collection, Abroath, Scotland; see ArtUK https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-italian-family-ferry-on-the-river-ninfa-128739/search/actor:williams-penry-17981885/page/1/view_as/grid. The posthumous Catalogue of the collection formed by the Late W.H. Forman…removed in 1892 to Callaly Castle, Northumberland by Major A. H. Browne, by William Chaffers (printed for private circulation 1892), contains a listing for this on p. 205, no. 1 The Italian Ferry. No dimensions are given. See https://archive.org/stream/catalogueofworks00chaf#page/204/mode/2up
[2] Charles Eastlake letter to Redmond Barry, 1 August 1864. One of the initial eleven paintings selected,and purchased by Sir Charles Eastlake as the founding collection of the NGV.
Royal Academy, London, 1835, no. 226; British Institution, London, 1839, no. 284; Fine Arts Gallery, International Exhibition, London, 1862, British Division, no. 498, as Ferry on the River Ninfa, Pontine Marshes, lent by W. H. Forman; First Exhibition of Pictures, north wing of Public Library, Melbourne, opened 24 December 1864; Fine Arts Gallery (Compartment 10), Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne, 1866, no. 315; First Loan Exhibition of Works of Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1869, no. 491B.
