Mountain Landscape at Tusculum c. 1809 - 1812

Josephus Augustus Knip made this landscape in pen and watercolour. We see a panoramic view of the Lazio region of Italy, once the heartland of the Roman Empire. Knip lived in a time of great social and political upheaval, first with the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Empire. Such a picture speaks to the social conditions that shape artistic production. It is a reminder of the transformative power of revolution, which swept away the old aristocratic order, but also of the enduring appeal of the classical past. Tusculum would have been a popular destination for wealthy Europeans on the Grand Tour. The tradition of visiting the antique lands of Italy and Greece served as a form of cultural capital for the elite. This landscape, therefore, acts as a document of social history. By using sources from archives we can reconstruct something of the networks that gave meaning to the art of Knip's time.