1573 - Dillis, Johann Georg von (attributed). Zurich. Lavished ink drawing over pen on handmade paper with a large watermark (truncated in the center). Monogrammed “GD” (?) in the lower left corner; titled and inscribed “Dillis” and “Vue de la Ville et du Lac de Zurich” on the reverse. Circa 1797. Sheet dimensions: 15.8 x 19.5 cm.

Dillis, Johann Georg von (attributed). Zurich. Lavished ink drawing over pen on handmade paper with a large watermark (truncated in the center). Monogrammed “GD” (?) in the lower left corner; titled and inscribed “Dillis” and “Vue de la Ville et du Lac de Zurich” on the reverse. Circa 1797. Sheet dimensions: 15.8 x 19.5 cm. This view was likely created during one of Johann Georg von Dillis’s (1759–1841) trips to Switzerland. The young artist first traveled to the Upper Rhine and Switzerland in 1788, accompanied by Count Max Preysing. Beginning in 1786, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, repeatedly arranged for Dillis to serve as a travel companion for English art lovers. In this way, the artist came to know Salzburg, Corsica, and Rome, and later also Switzerland and Milan. This work may have been created during a “tour” with Lord Ossulton, the son of the 4th Earl of Tankerville, whom the artist accompanied in 1797 as a sketching companion on a journey through Switzerland (including Zurich and Lausanne) all the way to Milan. *