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A Roman Landscape with Figures

probably 1630s
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 623

German by birth, Wals was a key figure in the generation of Northern painters who took the ancient monuments and ruins of the Roman countryside as their subject. Between 1620 and 1622 he taught the recently arrived Claude Lorrain, greatly influencing the younger artist’s method of drawing directly from nature as a step before painting landscapes in the studio. Wals specialized in small paintings, such as this work on copper, with brilliant sunlight and lucid atmospheres. They look ahead to works painted by the French landscapist Camille Corot during his visits to Italy two centuries later.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Roman Landscape with Figures
  • Artist: Goffredo Wals (German, Cologne, born ca. 1590–95, died 1638–40 Calabria)
  • Date: probably 1630s
  • Medium: Oil on copper
  • Dimensions: Diameter 16 in. (40.6 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Wrightsman Fund, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.157
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

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Landscape with Trees by the Water, Goffredo Wals German, Etching
Landscape with Trees by the Water
Goffredo Wals
n.d.
The Rebuke of Adam and Eve, Charles Joseph Natoire French, Oil on copper
The Rebuke of Adam and Eve
Charles Joseph Natoire
1740
The Golden Age, Joachim Wtewael Netherlandish, Oil on copper
The Golden Age
Joachim Wtewael
1605
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), Anton Raphael Mengs German, Oil on canvas
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768)
Anton Raphael Mengs
ca. 1777
Self-Portrait, Anton Raphael Mengs German, Oil on canvas
Self-Portrait
Anton Raphael Mengs
1776

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