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 blue river in the Veneto, Italy’s largest region. The area has several large rivers running through it, including the Po, the Piave, and the Brenta. The sandy brown area in the bottom left and middle which divides the river indicates the build up of silt characteristic of the Venetian lagoon, suggesting that this river is located close to Venice. Below the sandbank the abrupt darting brush strokes suggest rapidly moving water over shallow ground. The bright solid blues of the upper part of the river mark depth and a current.
