Villa Quintilli

William Walcot (1874-1943) was a British architect, graphic artist and etcher. Born in Odessa, he was notable as a practitioner of refined Art Nouveau (Style Moderne) architecture in Moscow - which had the misfortune to be condemned later as 'bourgeois decadence' by Communist Russia. His trademark Lady's Head keystone ornament became the easily recognisable symbol of the Russian Style Moderne.

Moving to Britain in 1906 following the early death of his wife, in the 1920s and 1930s, Walcot concentrated on graphic art and was widely praised as the best architectural draftsman in London. He was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1913, as an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1916 and a Fellow of the RIBA in 1922. He was also an associate of the British School at Rome.

Walcot, along with contemporary Cyril Farey, was one of the most sought-after English architectural illustrators of the 1920s and 30s. Walcot developed his own impressionistic style in gouache and watercolour which won numerous commissions from Edwin Lutyens, Herbert Baker and Aston Webb. He also engaged in printmaking, creating reconstructions of ancient Greek, Roman, Babylonian and Egyptian buildings Tragically, Walcot's successful practice was ruined with the outbreak of World War II, and, in 1943, he committed suicide in Sussex.

The massive ruins of the Villa Quintilii (spelled 'Quintilli' in this etching) are on the Via Appia about 25 km. from Rome. The Villa was the home of the two rich and cultured brothers, Sextus Quintilius Valerius Maximus and Sextus Quintilius Condianus, of whom historian Edward Gibbon commented "Their fraternal love has saved their names from oblivion and endeared their memory to posterity." They were the confidants of Marcus Aurelius. However his son Commodus when he succeeded as Emperor was jealous of their popularity and coveted their estate, which he confiscated, and banished the two brothers. Walcot's etching reveals his profound appreciation and understanding of what has been called the 'hieratic sumptuousness' of this period in Roman antiquity and its architectural/archaeological remains.

See:

Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, 'William Walcot... Villa Quintilii', http://www.elizabethharvey-lee.com/exhibitions/walcot/walcot45_villa_quintilii.htm

Wikipedia, 'William Walcot', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walcot

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   June 2018