Roman Landscape near Rocca di Papa

Art Historical Context

In 1866, artist Ernst Furchtegott Mohn created this evocative drawing of the Italian countryside near Rocca di Papa, a historic town in the Alban Hills south of Rome. The scene captures the region’s characteristic mix of rolling terrain, scattered buildings, and lush trees, reflecting the long-standing fascination that 19th European artists held for the Roman landscape as both a classical ideal and a source of fresh natural inspiration. Mohn worked in a delicate combination of pen and black and greyish-brown ink with brush-applied brown ink and watercolor. This mixed-media approach allowed him to achieve fine linear detail alongside soft tonal washes, conveying the gentle light and atmospheric depth of the setting. Such techniques were especially valued for travel sketches, enabling artists to record impressions quickly yet with lasting visual richness. Now part of the Metropolitan Museum’s Drawings and Prints collection, the work measures just under 10 by 13 inches. Its acquisition through the Elisha Whittelsey Fund underscores the enduring appeal of these intimate, on-the-spot studies that bring the spirit of 19th-century Italy to modern viewers.