Grand Tour views

A particularly interesting rediscovery are the two paintings by Thomas Patch, View of the Arno with the Santa Trinita Bridge and View of Piazza della Signoria, which have been conserved for over half a century in a German private collection.

These two works are in fact a typical example of Patch’s production, portraying two of the most famous sites of Florence: Piazza della Signoria, taken from the north and showing in the centre of the view the two most famous buildings, Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia dei Lanzi, and the Santa Trinita bridge shown from the Oltrarno riverbank.
An English painter and engraver (Exeter 1725 - Florence 1782) Patch lived in Italy from 1747. In Rome he initially made his name as a painter of views, especially among the English tourists, but after he moved to Florence in 1775 he became better known for his humorous caricatures of scenes of conversation, and these are the works for which he is now mostly remembered.

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