Majolica, Lake Como

Elizabeth Murray · September 1841

Medium

Watercolor and white gouache over graphite on gray wove paper

Original size

18.7 × 27 cm (7 3/8 × 10 11/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Romanticism

Painted during a September journey through northern Italy, this intimate watercolor captures Lake Como with the quiet luminosity that made Elizabeth Murray one of the most accomplished British travel artists of her generation. Murray spent much of the 1830s and 1840s moving through Europe and North Africa, developing a technique that set her apart from her contemporaries. Working on gray wove paper, she built her compositions from a graphite underdrawing, then layered transparent watercolor washes before applying white gouache to coax light from the surface — a method that gives this piece its characteristic silvery depth. The toned ground eliminates the stark brightness of white paper and lends the scene a natural, atmospheric calm. Murray was among a small circle of women artists in this period who achieved genuine recognition for plein-air travel work at a time when such careers were largely closed to them; she exhibited at the Royal Academy and gained the patronage of notable collectors. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates Murray's delicate tonal layering into the richer, more tactile language of oil on canvas, preserving the gentle interplay of light and shadow across the water while giving the composition a presence and permanence suited to any wall.