Robert Freebairn (London 1764-1808). A villa outside Naples

oil on canvas. 92 x 122cm (36 1/4 x 48 1/16in). Estimate: £10,000 - 15,000, €13,000 - 19,000

ENGRAVED:
I Hill, Description of six selected views in Italy, published by Robert Freebairn, 1802 (see J.R.Abbey, Travel in Aquatint and Lithography, London 1956, no.163, p.143). The present work is probably the second in the set, An Italian Villa.

A painting entitled A scene near Naples was exhibited by Freebairn at the Royal Academy in 1795, no. 238.

Freebairn was said to have been a pupil of Richard Wilson in circa 1781, before entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1782. He was later apprenticed to Philip Reinagle from 1782-85, and his first exhibited picture at the Royal Academy was sent from Reinagle's studio in Great Castle Street, Cavendish Square, London in 1782. He is recorded as travelling to Italy in circa 1786 where he was to see the work of Jacob More (circa 1740-1793), the Scottish painter of classical landscapes influenced by Claude and Poussin. He is recorded as being in Rome from Easter 1787, living in the Via Babuino. Later in 1790 he is listed in Rome as a landscape painter living in the Casa di Battoni near the Strada Condotta, where Whaley Armitage on visiting his studio in March 1791 thought his landscapes equal to any of de Loutherbourg's. During his time in Rome, he was to send Roman landscape views to the Academy for exhibition between 1789-91, returning from Rome in March 1791.
He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1782-1804, with some 54 landscapes, 33 of which were Italianate landscapes, mainly of Rome, Naples, Verona and Genoa. At the British Institute he exhibited between 1806-13 (posthumously between 1809-13), 22 landscapes, again Italian views some of which had been previously exhibited at the Royal Academy. The engraver Ziegler was to publish in aquatint 40 of his paintings in English and Italian Scenery.

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