![]() Many pieces found their way into the tourists’ cabinet of curiosities – de rigueur for the well-travelled cultural connoisseur. Many included depictions of well-known sites like the Coliseum or any number of scenes of Italian architecture. Craftsmen produced them in their thousands designed as aide-mémoires. One particular came in the shape of fans – a very portable (and useful) memento. In addition to paintings there was a market for fans, spoons, teapots and pocket watches to satisfy the tourists. Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) portrait of Charles John Crowle (1738-1811) of Crowle Park, 1761 ![]() It was only in 1746, prompted by declining tourism, that Canaletto moved to England, where he painted views of London, Oxford and other cities as well as the country seats of his patrons. Paintings portraying the grandeur of Venice were also popular with many seeking the works of Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768) better known as Canaletto. Some Grand Tourists invited artists from home to accompany them throughout their travels. Very popular among travellers were the engravings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) whose prints of Roman views, including ancient structures like the Coliseum or more recent monuments such as the Piazza del Popolo, pandered to the growing market. In addition to vedute, there were fine examples of capricci – landscape or city views presenting real and imaginary classical architecture. Paintings were a portable souvenir leading to the production of hundreds of Italian vedute (views). The influx of these travellers to destinations north and south – Venice, Rome, and Naples in particular – led to a flowering of topographical paintings, drawings, and prints by native Italians serving a foreign market. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) Veduta della Piazza del Popolo c. ![]() Some took it more seriously than others, in 1728 Henry, 3rd Duke of Beaufort shipped 96 cases of works of art back home. Perhaps to prove their sophistication and the extent of their travels, they returned home with souvenirs of their travels, as well as, in many cases, an understanding of art and architecture. ![]() A state of affairs ably parodied by the Scottish portrait painter Katharine Read (a Jacobite who fled to Rome in 1750) who captured a group of well-off tourists, seemingly unaware of their cultural surroundings. Drinking, gambling and sex, were among the activities on offer, with the Marquess of Kildare in 1766 reporting in a letter home that he had run into more than 40 Old Etonian pals in the space of nine months. 1750, oil on canvasīut cultural pursuits did not always top the list among what Horace Walpole (himself a dedicated tourist) called “schoolboys who just broke loose”. Katharine Read, (1723–1778), ‘British Gentlemen in Rome’, c. Accompanied by a Cicerone (scholarly guide), hundreds of young men (and the occasional woman) embarked on this educational rite of passage. In 1776, the playwright Samuel Johnson wrote: “ A man who has not been to Italy is always conscious of an inferiority.” Beginning as early as the late 16th century, it became fashionable for the nobility and landed gentry to visit Europe, and, above all, Rome, as the culmination of their classical education.
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