Born into an artistic dynasty in Naples, Gabriele Carelli was the son of the landscape painter Raffaele Carelli. In 1837 he accompanied his older brother Consalvo to Rome, where he completed his training before returning to Naples in 1840. Gabriele took part in exhibitions in Naples in 1841 and 1845, and was introduced by his father to his patron, the 6th Duke of Devonshire. As a result, the young Carelli spent some time in 1847 and 1848 in England, where he continued to receive the patronage and hospitality of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, Devonshire House and Chiswick; several works by both Raffaele and Gabriele Carelli are today at Chatsworth. Carelli took part in exhibitions in Naples between 1851 and 1859 but eventually returned to London, where he exhibited frequently between 1866 and 1892. His work was shown at the Graves and Dudley Galleries in London, and he was admitted into the Royal Academy in 1874, exhibiting there until 1880. He married an Englishwoman and settled in Kenilworth in London, eventually becoming a naturalized British citizen. In 1875 two of his paintings of Neapolitan views were exhibited in Naples and won the artist a gold medal; purchased by Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, they are today in the Palazzo Reale in Naples. In the early 1880’s Carelli came to the attention of Queen Victoria, and he was to enjoy her favour and patronage for the rest of his career. A number of watercolour views of England, Italy and France by the artist are today in the Royal Collection at Osborne House and Windsor Castle, while other groups of drawings and watercolours are in the collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects in London and the Museo di San Martino in Naples.
Active mainly as a watercolourist, Carelli travelled widely in search of picturesque subject matter, throughout Italy and Spain as well as further afield; to Greece, the Near East and North Africa. His watercolour views proved immensely popular with collectors and connoisseurs in England. As the introduction to a catalogue of a posthumous exhibition of his watercolours noted, ‘The work of Gabriel Carelli has for many years been one of the features of the London Season to a large private connection of patrons and amateurs.’1 The same catalogue also noted of the artist that ‘He travelled in quest of subjects in the most picturesque parts of Europe, Palestine, and the Coast of Africa from Morocco to Egypt. The latter country was latterly the great field of his exertions; indeed his Streets and Bazaars of Cairo, Tunis, Algiers and Tangier are unrivalled for power of expressing the brilliant crowds of the East in their magical surroundings...His powerful treatment of the most varied subjects, his vigour and depth as well as transparency, have seldom been attained in pure Water Colour.’2
Long horizontal landscapes are a typical feature of Carelli’s watercolour drawings, which are also characterised by an attention to architectural detail. Other known watercolour views of Egypt by Carelli include scenes at Gizeh, Karnak, of the Nile near Qena3 and of Luxor, as well as several views of Cairo. Assiut is now one of the largest cities in Upper Egypt. It lies on the banks of the Nile, about 250 miles south of Cairo. Always important as a trading centre, it was renamed Lycopolis by the Greeks due to the fact that Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf by the inhabitants. The pencil inscription on the verso surely refers to this old Greek name. Even though the then small town is represented from a distance, the characters of the numerous tombs and minarets are remarkably apparent as is the intensity of the light, reflecting strongly from the walls of the palace and from the cliffs bordering the opposite bank of the Nile above which the sky has a very delicate tinge of pink suggesting the approach of sunset.
1. London, Graves Galleries, Water Colours of Picturesque Scenes, Places and Interiors in Italy, Spain, Holland, &c., and the East; Greece, Constantinople, Palestine, and Egypt; Bazaars and Courts in Tangiers, Algiers and Tunis; by the late Gabriel Carelli, 1902, unpaginated, introduction. The present sheet may possibly have been no.20 in the exhibition; The Nile at Kasr-el-Nil, priced at 35 guineas.
2. Ibid., unpaginated, introduction.
3. A View of the River Nile near Qena, Upper Egypt, Watercolour. Signed and inscribed gab. Carelli / Nil in brown ink at the lower left.
173 x 354 mm. (6 7/8 x 13 7/8 in.) Private Collection.
