Lot 2521 Dα

Theodor Leopold Weller was born in Mannheim but spent the majority of his life in Rome. He travelled to the city in 1825 after studying art in Munich. Initially, he only worked in Rome until 1833 before returning to Germany for six years, where he undertook several longer sojourns to Düsseldorf, Paris, and Munich. He finally returned to the Eternal City in 1839 and remained there until 1848.

Weller enjoyed great success with Italian genre scenes like the present work, and painted many of his most popular motifs in various versions. A smaller version of the present work also exists. The back of the piece bears a hand-written inscription: “Szene an einem Brunnen im Costüm von Sora. Rom 1843“ (Scene by a Well in the Costume of Sora. Rome 1843). The painting documents Weller's interest in the regional costumes of Italy, which he depicted with particular care and attention to detail. Sora is a town in the province of Frosinone in the Latium region.