Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Florence exerted a special attraction for British and American artists and writers in the late nineteenth century; the city--and its expatriate and tourist community--figures prominently in the novels of Henry James and E. M. Forster. The city also hosted a large population of English-speaking artists. Like Charles Herbert Moore, Harold B. Warren was inspired by John Ruskin's admiration for clearly delineated, highly detailed, realistic painting.

Many artists were drawn to the architecture of Florence's historic quarter. The Badia Fiorentina, depicted in the background of this watercolor, was a Benedictine monastery dating to the tenth century. Its slender, Gothic bell tower is one of the Florentine skyline's most distinctive features. The dark figures and an empty pushcart provide a humanizing contrast to the fortress-like architecture towering over the narrow, almost sunless street. This landmark figures in another watercolor by Warren in the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art's collection (EMA 2003.14).