Roman Landscape(Abraham Teerlink)
Probably set in one of the private parks that surrounded the villas of the great Roman families, this large-scale landscape is dominated by a stone bridge, with steps on which an old man is descending to collect water from the stream below. Two spindly trees grow from the sides of the bridge and on the other side of the stream we glimpse a sunlit clearing in the dense woodland that conceals a more distant view. Although evidently not painted en plein air, this painting resembles some of the small sketches done by his French contemporaries. Teerlink has abandoned the stylized compositions of his earlier years for a scene seemingly taken straight from nature.
Matthiesen Gallery & Stair Sainty Matthiesen, ‘The Gallic Prospect’, 1999
(Click on image above)