Lot 1511 Dα

Gilles-Francois Closson, to whom this oil sketch is attributed, was a gifted landscape painter who is known to art history as "the Belgian Corot". Following a seven year stay in Paris, he resided in Rome from 1824 to 1829, where he developed a penchant for scenes of ancient ruins and the landscapes of Campania, painted in the romantic spirit. The ruins of ancient Rome had been a beloved motif of Northern artists since the 16th century and they exerted a strong appeal.
Our sketch shows the remains of a building, covered with ivy and undergrowth, displaying the characteristic rhomboid brickwork known by the Romans as "opus reticulatum". Closson carried out a large number of similar, rarely signed oil sketches on paper, some half finished and some, like the present work, completed.
Following his return to Liège, Closson began to paint motifs of this city and its surroundings, meaning that this composition was most likely made during his time in Rome between 1824 and 1829.