View of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, Rome
Medium
Watercolor over graphite, lightly squared in graphite
Dimensions
Overall: 10 1/16 x 14 1/2in. (25.6 x 36.8cm) frame: 16 x 21 in. (40.6 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Arnold Whitridge Gift, 1963
Accession Number
63.167.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1864, French artist Henri-Joseph Harpign captured the timeless allure of ancient Rome in *View of the Colosse from the Basilica of Dom and the Flavian Palace Perched on the Palatine Hill amid the ruins of imperial grandeur, this watercolor offers a vista of the iconic Colosseum, evoking the layered history of Rome—from Flavian-era emperors to 19th-century Romantic fascination with antiquity. Harpignies, a master of landscape painting influenced by the Barbizon school frequently traveled to Italy, rendering its sunlit ruins with a delicate touch that blends precision and atmospheric glow. E...
About the Artist
Henri-Joseph Harpignies · 1819–1916
Henri-Joseph Harpignies (1819–1916) was a French landscape painter and watercolorist of extraordinary longevity whose career spanned nearly the entire history of nineteenth-century French art. Born in Valenciennes in northern France, he came to painting relatively late, beginning serious study only in his late twenties under Jean-Alexis Achard, a landscape painter working in the naturalist traditi...