Richard Wilson brought back from Italy many drawings of landscape subjects which he used as a source of inspiration for the rest of his career. It is likely that this picture, which is a replica of that in the Brinsley Ford Collection, is based on such a study. The location is likely to be idealised for the sake of the composition.  However, many such picturesque sites do exist in the environs of Rome which had earlier had been the inspiration for Gaspard Dughet.

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