Sir Watkin Williams Wynn (1891–1949), 8th Baronet;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 5 February 1947, lot 63, where purchased by W. Sabin;
Private collection, USA;
Anonymous sale ('Property from an Alabama Estate'), New York, Sotheby's, 14 January 1994, lot 67, for $300,000, where acquired by Browse and Darby on behalf of the present owner.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. These two paintings have recent linings and stretchers, and have recently been restored. Posillipo, a View of the Coast towards Vesuvius. Signed P.Fabris.p. The detailed brushwork in the foreground figures is beautifully crisp and all are finely intact, as is the hillside and foliage on the left. The sea and mountainous distance is also largely well preserved. Vesuvius may have been slightly strengthened in the past and there seems to have been slight early wear in the sky. This appears to have had some light reworking in the quite distant past, just visible in the distinction between untouched original sky around the spire on the left for example and some other apparently strengthened parts of the sky and clouds. The figures set back a little against the water at lower right have also had a little wear and occasional strengthening, including for instance from the boat on the right to the edge of the barrel in the centre including the arms of the little boy behind. However in the immediate foreground there is no wear in the figures at all and every detail is fresh and vivid. Pozzuoli, a View of the Bay. Signed and dated 1773. Here also the foreground figures are very finely intact, as is the landscape behind on the right. The lighter areas of sea and sky seem also in the distant past to have been lightly reworked in places, perhaps from previous wear, with some of the smaller figures set back against the water in the foreground on the left a little thin. There is no distinction of tone or darkening in any such reworking at an early date, which aimed to brighten any clouds or sky which had become at all thin, and the present luminous surface has remained well preserved. 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."

In 1773 Fabris published his Raccolta di varii Vestimenti ed Arti del Regno which recorded the various contemporary costumes, occupations and pastimes around Naples. It is thus of little surprise that this signed pair of canvases from the same year illustrates the artist's fascination with the colour and liveliness of the Neapolitan coastline. A pair of views of similar dimensions, dated 1771, and taken from a more distant view point are today in the Burton Constable Foundation and show a comparable balanced interest as the present works do between the buildings in the landscape and the populace around them.¹ Another pair of similar dimensions and dated 1770 is at Burghley House, Stamford.²


1. See H. Brigstocke in Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses, York 1994, p. 79, cat. nos. 41-42, reproduced pp. 79 and 80.
2. See H. Brigstocke and J. Somerville, Italian Paintings from Burghley House, exhibition catalogue, Alexandria (Virginia) 1995, pp. 70-71, cat. nos. 15 and 16, both reproduced in colour.