"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. These two painting have old linings, and old stretchers, although not the originals. The linings have preserved the texture and impasto beautifully and are still strong, as are the stretchers. The restoration is probably equally old, with any retouching clearly visible to the naked eye, although this is minimal. The paintings appear to have remained untouched and in a stable environment for a century or more. Landscape with horsemen and figures by a lake. The only accidental damage is a quite small retouched knock in the lower sky near the right edge, about a centimetre wide, with some other retouching along the edge in the lower right sky. The extreme edges have cracked away unevenly down this side by the edge of the original canvas leaving the lining canvas just visible within the frame. Although the paint appears to have long been strong and secure overall, at an earlier date some of the impasto in the whites of the horse and the dog in the foreground seem to have been a little brittle and slightly powdered off in a few places. Otherwise however the impasted vivid brushwork is amazingly fresh and intact generally, with the colour and surface texture beautifully preserved almost throughout, beneath quite a messy yellowed old varnish. A few swirls of paint have had a dab of retouching, now discoloured, in the sky, presumably where older varnish may remain in a crevice, and there is one slanting fairly superficial scratch also retouched in the sky near the trees on the left, with one brief retouching on the stretcher bar line at mid right. The warm ground can be seen emerging through the darker cloud and in the central hill where there is a sudden thinner patch. Pentimenti are visible here and there, for instance in the middle of the lower landscape and at the centre of the immediate foreground edge. Landscape with Figures by a Bridge over a River. This painting has also retained its fine, crisp, uncrushed impasto and vivid colour. There are also various pentimenti easily visible, such as the bush that was moved along the river bank at centre right. The early restoration seems to have been fairly haphazard and although the surface is largely in beautiful condition there is a patch of wear in the hill in the middle distance centre right. Occasional little darkened surface touches in the sky seem to be cosmetic, with one or two other little verticals touching out part of the stretcher bar line on the right. Both paintings have been untouched for a long time so there is no deceptive restoration and all is self evident. Although the old varnish is patchily yellowed clearly the overall condition is fine. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Cimaroli was one of the most admired North Italian landscape painters of his day.  According to his contemporary, Petro Guarienti, Cimaroli, who settled in Venice in 1713, had studied in Brescia under Antonio Aureggio and Antonio Calza, and enjoyed the patronage of collectors in England and elsewhere.¹ His artistic reputation must have been well established by 1726 as in that year he was asked to collaborate on Owen McSwiny's ambitious project for a series of paintings of tombs of illustrious Britons, together with other leading artists of the day, including Canaletto, Pittoni, Piazzetta and Balestra.  Cimaroli's paintings are listed in inventories of many of the most eminent collectors of contemporary Venetian art including that of Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg and Consul Joseph Smith, the latter of whom owned six paintings by the artist, which were sold with his entire collection in 1762 to George III, only three of which still remain in the Royal Collection today.²

1. P.A. Orlandi and P. Guarienti, Abecedario Pittorico..., 1753, p. 272, 'studio in Brescia la pittura sotto Antonio Aureggio, e Antonio Calza pittori paesisti, e lavoro per commissioni venutegli dall'Inghilterra, e da altre citta lontane, che gradivano i suoi dipinti. Vive a Venezia.' 
2. M. Levey, The Later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1991, pp. 69-70, nos. 459-461.