View of Cittaducale c. 1810 - 1812

Josephus Augustus Knip rendered this view of Cittaducale with pencil and watercolor on paper. It's a study in understatement. The slightness of the materials, the soft gradations of tone, the delicate touch – all these add up to an image that seems to hover between observation and reverie. The misty effect is not just a descriptive feature, it is almost the whole point. Knip has used thin washes to create a sense of atmospheric perspective. Notice how the distant mountains are rendered in paler hues, while the foreground details are slightly more defined. This approach would have been considered very modern at the time. Academic painting, then in its pomp, was all about bravura and imposing subject matter. By contrast, Knip’s work seems almost diaristic – a quiet record of a personal experience. This emphasis on the artist’s individual sensibility heralded a major shift toward the modern era, where feeling became as important as seeing.