XVIII century. Pastoral landscape with shepherds, bridge and rocky lanscape.

Pastoral landscape with shepherds, bridge and rocky landscape.

The shepherd with his wife sitting on a mule lead their cattle home at sunset.

The rosy reflections of a picturesque sunset recall the light of southern Italy, a place of dreams and travel for many northern European painters.

Probably Lazio region near Roma.

The French XVIII century taste was for idealised scenes foreign to their own experience. There was a demand for enchanted views of bays of Baiae and Naples, mountains, caves, storms, shipwrecks, because town-dwellers were unlikely to ever witness these things in their own lives. In addition, Italianate scenes were popular with aristocratic clientele as they reflected the places they had visited on the Grand Tour. The present painting has a carefully balanced composition in the tradition of Franco-Italian landscape painting.

In XIX century gilt wooden frame.

H 84cm

L 63cm