St. Peter's, Looking Back on Rome
- David Roberts, Scottish, British, 1796-1864
David Roberts, St. Peter’s, Looking Back on Rome, 1855. Oil paint on canvas; 12 1/4 × 30 in. (31.1 × 76.2 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2018.17
Born near Edinburgh, Roberts came to be known as the “Scottish Canaletto” after the eighteenth-century Italian cityscape painter famed for his precise representations of cities and their buildings. For over two decades Roberts traveled through Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East making paintings and watercolors of architectural and topographical subjects. He painted this picture following a visit to Italy in 1853, the final stop of his travels before returning to London that year. For over a century such works had been enormously popular among British collectors as mementos of their Italian sojourns. In an inscription by Roberts he informs us that the work was a gift to the wife of his friend Joseph Arden, “…A Souvenir / of her Visit to Rome.”
- “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018
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