Image: Aberdeen Art Gallery.

• Title(s): Gulf of Spezia, seen from Carrara (Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition catalogue, 1927; Royal Academy Illustrated, 1927); “a picture of Carrara” (Illustrated London News, 7 May 1927).
• Description: Study of shrubs and trees in leaf, grass foreground with small white flowere, blue sky behind, hill silhouettes distant.
• Media: Oil on canvas (Aberdeen Art Gallery).
• Dimensions: “Overall: Height: 102 cm, Width: 64.1 cm / Frame: Height: 120.5 cm, Width: 83.8 cm” (Aberdeen Art Gallery).
• Signature/date/other text: None apparent in online image.
• History:
  • 1890? – See text below.
  • Date? – Exhibited Aberdeen (date unspecified) according to the Posthumous Studio Sale Catalogue.
  • 1927 – Exhibited Royal Academy – Summer Exhibition (catalogue); referred to as “a picture of Carrara” in The Illustrated London News, 7 May 1927, p832; image in the Royal Academy Illustrated, 1927 with the title Gulf of Spezia, seen from Carrara.
  • 1955 – Gifted to Aberdeen Art Gallery in 1955 by the Hon. Gertrude Forbes Sempill, titled Landscape with Trees.
• Location: Aberdeen Art Gallery.

Undated, but possibly 1890, when the Swynnertons were staying at Carrara in north-west Italy.

[In 1890] I was glad of the opportunity of a rest and change afforded one by an invitation we had from our early Roman friend Mr. J. W. Swynnerton, the sculptor, and Mrs Swynnerton, the distinguished painter, to spend a few weeks with them at a villa near Carrara … While with our friends the Swynnertons we made an expedition to the summit of Moune Sagra, the highest peak of the Carrara range.

Walter Crane (1907) An Artist’s Reminiscences.

The Times, 2 May 1927:

… “The Gulf of Spezia, seen from Carrara,” the most “alive” landscape in the exhibition, all a-quiver with light and yet firmly braced by the tree stems …

Thanks to Grant Waters for locating image and correct title in Royal Academy Illustrated, 1927.

---

Page last updated 17 Nov 2025.