"Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures, &c. at the Royal-Academy, Somerset-Place, for the Year 1787." St. James's Chronicle (May 15, 1787), p. [4], calls it "View of Ponte Loretto, an antique Bridge near Nettuno" and states that it is "A bad choice of Nature. The Lines are petite, or frittered into small bits".
Anna Ottani Cavina. Paysages d'Italie: Les peintres du plein air (1780–1830). Exh. cat., Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. Paris, 2001, pp. 50–51, no. 31, ill. (color), dates it 1777; characterizes the artist's journal entry of May 1, 1777, which includes a description of his visit to Ponte Loreto during his first excursion south of Rome, as one of "une intensité extraordinaire," and describes this sketch as a record of direct observation; concludes that its dimensions are too great for it to have been executed out of doors, allowing, however, that the paint was applied in a fluid and rapid manner consistent with plein-air sketching; illustrates a photograph of the site.
Kathleen Stuart in The Thaw Collection: Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, Acquisitions Since 1994. Exh. cat., Pierpont Morgan Library. New York, 2002, pp. 144–45, no. 64, ill. (color), notes that this is the artist's only known depiction of Ponte Loreto; presents cases arguing both in favor of and against the probability that it was executed, if only partially, on site, taking into account three sketchbook drawings dated April 30, May 1, and May 2, 1777, respectively (British Museum, London, inv. 1981,0516.17.76–78), as well similarities to a painting, "An Excavation of an Antique Building Discovered in a Cava in the Villa Negroni, Rome" (Tate Britain, London, inv. T03544); suggests that the Thaw and Tate paintings may once have belonged to a sketchbook or portfolio, observing that underdrawing is visible in both works.
Timothy Wilcox. Letter to Kathleen Stuart. February 7, 2002 [see Ref. Stuart 2002, p. 144], notes that Jones's "Small British Museum Sketchbook" contains dated drawings made around the time of the artist's visit to Ponte Loreto; suggests that this work may have been begun on site and later completed in oil
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Christopher Riopelle in Thomas Jones (1742–1803): An Artist Rediscovered. Exh. cat., National Museums and Galleries of Wales. New Haven, 2003, pp. 258–59, no. 151, ill. (color), dates it 1780s?; notes the artist's May 1, 1777, description of his visit to Ponte Loreto and concludes that "the present, heavily worked and carefully composed sheet was painted afterwards, based on the sketches made that day".
Greg Smith in Thomas Jones (1742–1803): An Artist Rediscovered. Exh. cat., National Museums and Galleries of Wales. New Haven, 2003, p. 72, notes that this was Jones's only exhibited work in 1787, and that its sole notice in the press was negative [Ref. St. James's Chronicle 1787], at a moment when the artist had hoped to attract patronage.
Charlotte Gere in Plein-Air Painting in Europe, 1780–1850. Exh. cat., Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art. Shizuoka, 2004, pp. 34–35, no. 2, ill. (color), states that while the subject and, possibly, the underdrawing, date to Jones's visit to Ponte Loreto, the treatment more closely recalls the artist's highly finished watercolors than his plein-air oil sketches; notes the probability that he worked up other Italian landscapes upon his return to England.
Morena Costantini. "Granet a Villa Aldobrandini." Magici Paesaggi: Immagini di Frascati e dintorni nei libri e nei dipinti dei viaggiatori fra Sette e Ottocento. Quaderni delle Scuderie Aldobrandini 5. Rome, 2006, pp. 92, 94, fig. 5, states that it was probably based on sketches and watercolors made on site, and that Lanuvio and Genzano are visible in the distance.
Esther Bell. "Catalogue Raisonné of the Thaw Collection." Studying Nature: Oil Sketches from the Thaw Collection. New York, 2011, p. 131, no. 89, ill. (color).
