The Roman Theater at Taormina

Französische Malerei 1809–1830, 1828

Against a backdrop of stone ruins and rocky mountains, two men wearing long, brown robes address a young boy in this sunlit landscape painting. The people are tiny in scale in relation to the landscape, and they have pale skin. Each man has a bald head surrounded by a ring of hair. They stand in the lower center of the painting on a grassy area that runs alongside a curving stone wall set into the earth. The wall begins near the left edge of the painting and curves toward us, in a shallow U, and extends off the right side. The men are turned to our right with hands outstretched, and they face the boy who holds a hand to his head. The land dips away from us to meet the stone ruins in a shallow valley. The curving wall and ruins are honey brown. The edge of a rust-brown, rocky cliff juts into the scene to our left, and to our right, a steel-gray mountain rises steeply just beyond the ruins. More buildings, these intact, cluster along a cliff-face that overlooks a coastline with ice-blue water. Smoke pours from a snow-tipped mountain in the distance, to our right of center. The mountain’s sloping sides are mottled in sky blue and taupe brown. Parchment-white clouds line the horizon beyond the mountain under a pale blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “LS 1828,” with the LS joined in a monogram.
Artista
Französische Malerei 1809–1830
Fecha
1828
Tipo
Pintura
Técnica
Óleo sobre papel adherido a lienzo
Medidas
43,2 × 59,7 cm
Colección
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licencia
Dominio público, CC0

Descripción de la imagen

Against a backdrop of stone ruins and rocky mountains, two men wearing long, brown robes address a young boy in this sunlit landscape painting. The people are tiny in scale in relation to the landscape, and they have pale skin. Each man has a bald head surrounded by a ring of hair. They stand in the lower center of the painting on a grassy area that runs alongside a curving stone wall set into the earth. The wall begins near the left edge of the painting and curves toward us, in a shallow U, and extends off the right side. The men are turned to our right with hands outstretched, and they face the boy who holds a hand to his head. The land dips away from us to meet the stone ruins in a shallow valley. The curving wall and ruins are honey brown. The edge of a rust-brown, rocky cliff juts into the scene to our left, and to our right, a steel-gray mountain rises steeply just beyond the ruins. More buildings, these intact, cluster along a cliff-face that overlooks a coastline with ice-blue water. Smoke pours from a snow-tipped mountain in the distance, to our right of center. The mountain’s sloping sides are mottled in sky blue and taupe brown. Parchment-white clouds line the horizon beyond the mountain under a pale blue sky. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “LS 1828,” with the LS joined in a monogram.

Französische Malerei 1809–1830