6720 - Catel, Franz Ludwig

Catel, Franz Ludwig View of the Port of Genoa from the Villetta di Negro. Brush, gray, and brown over pencil, on vellum. 20.8 x 30.7 cm. Inscribed lower left: “Genoa from the Villa de Negris.” "The name given to the vantage point from which this sweeping view of the bay—with the lighthouse in the distance and the Port of Genoa—was captured likely refers to the Villetta di Negro, an 18th-century green oasis spanning two hectares in the heart of Genoa’s city center, located on the site of the former Luccoli Bastion, where the eponymous neoclassical villa of the Genoese poet and art patron, Margrave Gian Carlo Di Negro (1769–1857), was built in the 19th century. Di Negro had purchased the hilltop site of the demilitarized Luccoli Bastion in 1802 and founded a botanical school there, which he financed for six years. Today, it is home to the Chiossone Museum of Oriental Art. Over the decades, the count’s villa evolved into one of Italy’s most important literary salons; there he hosted, among others, figures such as Niccolò Paganini, Lord Byron, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, and Alessandro Manzoni. It is plausible that Catel also paid the count a visit there; however, there is no documentary evidence to support this. The date of the drawing is therefore also unclear, as Catel likely visited Genoa on several occasions, including probably in the late 1830s, when, around 1839, he created a troubadour scene with the Bay of Genoa in the background (see exhibition Cat. Franz Ludwig Catel, Hamburger Kunsthalle 2015, Petersberg 2015, p. 456, no. 204, with ill. on p. 428). There is evidence of a longer journey from Rome to Milan and Venice in 1838, so a detour to Genoa is conceivable.” (Andreas Stolzenburg). Catel’s authorship is confirmed by Andreas Stolzenburg, Hamburg (verbally on July 28, 2026). Provenance: Private collection in southern Germany. Ketterer, Munich, auction on November 20, 2015, Lot 80. Private collection, Hesse. - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not listed in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.