Carole Robb is one of a number of talented British artists who studied at the British School in Rome during the 1970s. Like Stephen Farthing (b.1950) and Christopher Le Brun (b.1951), she rejected abstraction in favour of a figurative style informed by old master painting. This drawing is part of a group of fourteen works (E.3719 to 3732-2004) that illustrate Robb's journey through Rome to Tivoli, and the Veneto, that she undertook in 2003/4. As such, it constitutes a contemporary uprise to the V&A's numerous Grand Tour watercolours of Italy, dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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This watercolour represents a detail of a stream in the Veneto, a region in the North East of Italy. The landscape is probably that of the rich agricultural terrain of the Po Delta, which leads to the regional capitol of Venice which has also been a source of inspiration for Robb’s works. There, a system of waterways like this stream ensures the fertility of the land. Robb’s depiction maps how channelled water generates the growth of crops which are possibly suggested by the near uniform dabs of paint in the foreground. The lush shrub-like form on the far bank completes the sense of cultivation.
