A DREAM OF ITALY (MOUNTAINS and CLOUDS VERSIONS).

There are two versions of A Dream of Italy, a ‘mountains’ version (known from a 1922 newspaper illustration, Pearson’s Magazine Mar 1923 and a Brooklyn Institute archival image) and a ‘clouds’ version known from auctions in the 2010s.

The latter appears to be the same work with the background and some details of the figure reworked sometime after the work was ‘de-accessioned’ by Brooklyn Institute in 1947. The ‘clouds’ version could be a duplicate, but the exactness of the fine detail makes this unlikely.

Some sources (e.g., 1923 exhibition catalogue, Newcastle Daily Chronicle 13 Jul 1923; Belfast Telegraph 7 Feb 1924) state that the Metropolitan Museum of New York once owned the painting, but this is an error – the Met kindly searched their archives and there is no record of the work ever having been housed or exhibited there.

Thanks to E_ M_, The Metropolian Museum of Art and Brooklyn Institute for their help clarifying the history of this work.

A DREAM OF ITALY – MOUNTAINS VERSION.

Image: The Sphere (newspaper) 9 Dec 2022 / Pearson’s Magazine Mar 2023.

  • Note: It is assumed here that the ‘clouds’ version is the same work as the ‘mountains’ version, the background having been repainted after the work was de-accessioned by Brooklyn Institute.
  • Title(s): A Dream of Italy (multiple sources, including Brooklyn Institute accession document), occasionally Dream of Italy; untitled in 2017/2018 auctions.
  • Description: ‘Mountains’ version – a female figure, upper body naked, lower body behind a cloth held with her left hand, ivy leaves around her head, right arm raised and holding further clump of ivy, left leg stepping forwards, rocky/mountainous background; ‘Clouds’ version – ivy replaced with other vegetation, refinements made to the modelling of the figure, the rocky/mountainous background replaced with sky and clouds.
  • Media: Oil on canvas.
  • Dimensions: Canvas 41½ x 85¼ in. / 105 x 217 cm, frame 51¼ x 94¼ in [measurements given in 2017/2018 auctions].
  • Date/signature/other text: None mentioned in ‘clouds’ version auction and now visible in any if the images.
  • History:
    • [1881 – According to Gobbi et al (2004) Of Queens’ Gardens, “in 1881 the English painter Annie Robinson (later Swynnerton) exhibited a painting called A Dream of Italy at the independent and avant-garde Grosvenor Gallery in London”. However, this date is thirteen years before any other reference to the painting and not in 1881 Grosvenor Gallery Summer Exhibition catalogue. Other works of Annie’s show that she had the necessary skill, but without other confirmation the date given in this publication is assumed to be an error or referring to a different work.]
    • 1894 Sep – Exhibited Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition (Liverpool Mercury, 1 Sep 1894).
    • 1899 Apr – Exhibited New Gallery – Spring Exhibition (St James Gazette, 24 Apr 1899; The Art Journal, 1899; The Spectator, 29 Apr 1899, Illustrated London News, 6 May 1900).
    • 1900 Jul – Exhibited Women’s Exhibition, Earl’s Court, London, “1458 … £840 0s 0d” (over £80,000 at 2023 value). (Echo, 9 Jul 1900; The Scotsman, 9 Jul 1900; Bury and Norwich Post, 21 Aug 1900.)
    • 1910 Mar – Exhibited at Women’s International Art Club 11th annual exhibition, The Grafton Gallery. (London Evening Standard, 2 Mar 1910; The Queen, 5 Mar 1910.)
    • 1918 – Photograph in Vogue 51(3), p63.
    • c. 1920 – On loan (from Mr A. Augustus Healey) to and then accessioned by Brooklyn Institute / “the New York Museum paid “£1,500 for her “Dream of Italy”” (Portsmouth Evening News, 25 Oct 1933), however a Brooklyn Institute publication of 1920 call it one of the “gifts” to the “Museums of The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences”, presented by A. Augustus Healey.
    • 1922 Dec 9 – Image in The Sphere (newspaper).
    • 1922 Dec 12 – Victoria Daily Times states “Her work is … in the New York Museum, the director paying 1,000 guineas for “A Dream of Italy.”” (Contradicts 1920 information stating it was a gift.)
    • 1923 Mar – Illustrated in Pearson’s Magazine.
    • 1923 Oct – Exhibited “Twenty Third Show of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors” Fine Arts Galleries, 215 West Fifty-seventh street, on loan from the “Brooklyn Art Museum” (Pittsburgh Daily Post, 14 Oct 1923; The Art News, 20 Oct 1923).
    • 1947 – ‘Deaccessioned’ by the Brooklyn Institute, i.e, removed from collection (source: private communication).
    • … continued under ‘clouds verision’ below.
  • Location: ?

The Art Journal, 1899:

‘A Dream of Italy,’ by Mrs. Swynnerton, is a very ambitious composition, and if somewhat dry and incisive, attains a measure of success that, with due deference, perhaps no other woman artist could secure.

The London Daily Mail, 22 Apr 1899:

Mrs. Swynnerton’s “A Dream of Italy” (213) … The flamboyant figure of a more than sufficiently endowed (physically speaking) Italian peasant girl flaunts herself from out the canvas. Her dimensions are so liberal as to be almost terrifying. The colour, too, is cast in the same generous mould. Clever the painting is, undeniably: but it is too aggressive, too compelling.

The Guardian, 22 Apr 1899.

No one can help seeing Mrs. A. L. Swynnerton’s lifesize nude subject entitled “A Dream of Italy.” It is a picture one could see with distinctness a hundred yards away. The iron modelling and metallic draperies suggest that sculpture rather than painting would have been the right medium. Anything less like a dream it would be impossible to imagine.

Truth, 27 Apr 1899:

I am afraid that Mrs. A. L. Swynnerton’s “Dream of Italy” (No. 213) must be considered a nightmare. The massive and large-limbed woman, with very little on, who is squeezing the juice of unripe grapes into her mouth, and posing at large, so to speak, in front of a number of papier-mâché rocks, is not in any way suggestive of the Italy we know now.

London Evening Standard, 2 Mar 1910:

In the Central Gallery Mrs. Swynnerton’s “A Dream of Italy,” [and works by Miss Bessie MacNicol] make everything else look a little commonplace. “A Dream of Italy,” the life-sized, semi-nude figure of a woman stepping down the mountain side, has a combination of dignity and beauty that can only be called classical … full of joy.

The Guardian, 19 Oct 1920:

Mrs. Swynnerton is now in her seventy-sixth year, and if any honour is to come to her from her own country it should not be much longer delayed. She is the daughter of a Manchester lawyer, and began her art training at the Manchester School of Art. She went to Rome in 1874, and since then has divided her time between London and Rome.

Mrs. Swynnerton’s painting “A Dream of Italy” has just been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of New York* … It was one of the pictures in Mrs. Charles Hunters collection, and the original price paid to the artist was 100. It is a curious and saddening reflection that this veteran artist, whose work is esteemed so highly among artists, particularly by such an authority as Mr. John Sargent, who has many times given practical expression of his admiration, is only represented in two English public galleries – In Manchester, where she was born and educated, the only example is her early portrait of Mr. Gaskell, which was bequeathed to the gallery! The other picture is her “Cupid and Psyche” at Oldham.**

[* The Metropolitan Museum of New York has no record of the painting having ever been in their possession, so this appears to be an error by the newspaper for the Brooklyn Institute; ** In fact, there were two other works in public galleries, Oceanid in Bradford and The Tryst in Salford. From 1923 to 1939 Manchester Art Gallery acquired 15 other paintings by Annie, two purchased and the rest gifts or bequests].

A DREAM OF ITALY – CLOUDS VERSION.

  • Details as ‘mountains’ version.
  • History:
  • Location: ?

See also A head of Bacchante, a figuratively related work.

Page last updated 25 Sep 2025.