Large watercolour-drawing of the Taormina temple ruins in Sicily, with Mount Etna in the distance, attributed to the French landscape painter Louis-François Cassas (1756-1827), who is best known for his illustrations for numerous travel books of the Levant published in the late 18th and early 19th century. He had a keen interest in and knowledge of classical architecture, displayed in full in the present drawing.
In 1813 he published a very large print series with views of Greece and Sicily titled Grandes vues pittoresques des principaux sites et monuments de la Grèce et de la Sicile et des sept collines de Rome, including a view of the Taormine theatre ruins (no. 8). We traced two other watercolour views of Taormina but with a different composition, signed by Cassas: one in The Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1965.241), smaller and dated 1783, and one roughly the same size as the present drawing, dated 1822 (auctioned at Bonhams July 2013).
The present watercolour, though unsigned, can be attributed to Cassas based primarily on the presence of his print with nearly the same composition in the 1781 travel book. This date corresponds perfectly with Cassas's stay in Italy. Moreover, the quality combined with the stylistic likeness of similar large drawings by Cassas, add support to the attribution. He may nevertheless have reworked his design for the 1781 print in a larger size later in his career.
With a small hole (about 1 cm. diameter) and light overall foxing, otherwise in good condition. Cf. Bohusz, Maria. Louis-François Cassas 1756-1827: dessinateur - voyageur, 1994, p. 86.