View from the Farnese Gardens, Rome

A young Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot painted this quiet view in 1826, during his first visit to Italy. Seated in the Farnese Gardens on the Palatine Hill, he looked out across the rooftops of Rome and set down what he saw on a warm, unhurried afternoon. Sun-bleached walls, tiled roofs, and pale mountains fading into the distance fill the middle of the scene, while two large trees stand on either side like open curtains, drawing your gaze toward the glowing buildings at the center.

Corot was still learning his craft when he made this study, and rather than turning the view into a grand or dramatic picture, he simply tried to record the truth of the moment. Working outdoors and fast, he chased the shifting light before it could change. That kind of painting was unusual back then, and his plain, honest way of seeing would go on to influence the Impressionists decades later. The result is a modest little scene, but a lovely one, holding onto the feel of a Roman day that has stayed much the same for almost two centuries.