View of the Caelian Hill, Rome, with the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, seen from the Aventine, Rome

Joseph Vernet

ca. 1750 · Black chalk, pen and black ink, brush and brown and gray wash · Drawings and Prints

Vernet was the most admired landscape specialist in eighteenth-century France. He traveled to Italy in the late 1730s, where he remained until 1753, when he was summoned back to France to for a commission from king Louis XV to paint a series of canvases depicting the Ports of France. His style was influenced by earlier masters, like Claude Lorrain, but also deeply indebted to the first-hand study of nature. This drawing of the Caelian Hill in Rome was made around 1750 and part of an album assembled probably in Vienna in the early 19th century. A meticulous distant view of the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo is contrasted by the abstract treatment of rooftops in the foreground.

Artist

Joseph Vernet

Date

ca. 1750

Medium

Black chalk, pen and black ink, brush and brown and gray wash

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, The Isaacson-Draper Foundation Gift, in honor of Furio Rinaldi, 2017