The Palace of the Caesars, Rome

A prolific painter and a talented cellist, Harpignies visited Italy for the first time in 1849, working mainly in Rome and Naples. He spent prolonged periods in these ancient cities producing watercolors that he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon until 1912.
In 1863-64, Harpignies and his new wife, Marguerite Vantillard, traveled to Italy and reconnected with Corot, whom he had first met in 1852. Presumably, Harpignies made sketches of the Roman Forum and the surrounding area while traveling. He completed the watercolor after his return to France, where he opened his atelier in 1865 and began to train many pupils.
This sunlit view of ruins depicts the remains of the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome. In the distance is the Coliseum at far right and the church of S. Francesca Romana with its seventeenth-century façade and twelfth-century bell tower at left. Through dense outlines and an expert use of gray wash, Harpignies defines the massive blocks of stone exposed to dazzling sunlight, giving the ruins a weight and substance that contrasts with the fleeting figure of a cleric at left.