A capriccio or architectural fantasy by Giovanni Paolo Panini which has emerged from an Irish collection after 200 years comes up at Chiswick Auctions in London on June 25. The oil painting has been in the same family since being purchased by David Ker in 1785. A Capriccio of classical ruins is estimated at £18,000-25,000.
David Ker (1751-1811) of Montalto in Co. Down was a wealthy landowner with several country estates. In 1771 he embarked on the ‘Grand Tour’ to Italy, where he met and eloped with the Venetian singer Madalena Guardi, believed to be the daughter of the painter Francesco Guardi. The couple married in Padua and thereafter resided in the Kers’ family estates in Ireland, where they had three daughters and a son.
