Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 'View of the Forum in Rome', 1814

This is one of the most well-known views of classical Rome. We are looking along the Forum towards the Palazzo Senatorio on the Capitol. Although the Forum had yet to be fully excavated, the three surviving columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux can be seen here on the left. The remains of the Temples of Saturn and Vespasian are in the middle distance, and the Arch of Septimius Severus is on the right.

The Danish artist Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg painted this picture during the three years he spent in Italy from 1813 to 1816, when he produced around 40 views of Rome and its surroundings as well as figure compositions and portraits. Although modest in scale, these views are among his finest achievements. Writing to the engraver J.F. Clemens in July 1814, Eckersberg announced his plan to 'make a collection of the most beautiful views in and around Rome … I have completed about ten small studies which are all painted on the spot direct from nature’. This painting corresponds with a detailed drawing (Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen), dated 8 June 1814. This drawing would have given him a very precise guide when painting, although it is likely that some of the picture was painted at the Forum itself.

Illuminated by the bright sunlight – the short shadows indicate it is around midday – the warm pinks, orange-browns and yellow ochre of the buildings almost glow against a clear blue sky. Eckersberg painted the architecture, particularly the ruins, in meticulous detail. The picture is structured around a scaffolding of interlocking horizontals and verticals, which form a near abstract grid that binds the composition together. In his later years, when a professor at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, Eckersberg became particularly interested in the theory of perspective and published his own rules about spatial construction and the effects of light and shade.

Eckersberg’s use of architectural features to define space perhaps also shows the influence of the neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David, whose studio Eckersberg frequented when in Paris from 1810 to 1813 and who had encouraged him to visit Italy. In his views of Rome, Eckersberg combines neoclassical severity with a new realism based upon observation, which was to characterise his mature style. Yet this is more than just a topographical study. Eckersberg gives equal attention to everyday activities, including transporting goods by cart, watering a horse at the fountain and herding mules. This creating a poignant contrast between the quiet routine of contemporary agrarian life and the urban grandeur of what had once been Imperial Rome.

Landscape painters working in and around Rome from around 1780 to 1830 often painted on location, anticipating the practice of painting outdoors that became a significant aspect of later nineteenth-century art. This painting, along with Corot’s oil sketch The Roman Campagna, with the Claudian Aqueduct, is a fine example of work produced in the 1820s and 1830s by this international community of artists.