In Holland at the turn of the eighteenth century, the taste for more elaborate room decoration created a demand for large landscapes, including imaginary garden scenes. This drawing by Isaac de Moucheron, dated ca. 1730, illustrates an imaginary Italianate garden filled with classical architecture and statuary. Beautiful in its own right and much sought after by collectors, the main idea and composition of this drawing may have been used for a larger wall design, carrying the nostalgic atmosphere of a lost arcadia into the Northern European mansion.

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