Evening Mood in the Alban Hills

German painter Louis Gurlitt made this view of the Alban Hills, the rolling country southeast of Rome, in 1850. The region was a favorite stop for artists traveling through Italy, drawn by its craggy slopes and the warm light that settles over the land as the sun goes down. Gurlitt spent much of the mid-1800s wandering across Europe with his brushes, and here he captures a rocky outcrop rising above the hills while distant peaks fade into a soft, hazy blue.

Down near the bottom of the scene, a handful of tiny figures make their way through the terrain, so small they nearly vanish against the sweep of the hills. Painters often used little touches like this to remind us how enormous nature can feel next to a single person. With its earthy browns and golden glow, the painting offers a peaceful record of an ordinary evening in a place Gurlitt clearly loved to study, from the tumbled rocks in the foreground to the mountains melting into the sky.