Antoine-Victor-Edmond-Madeleine Joinville, 'A Distant View of Tivoli', 1824

The French artist Antoine-Victor-Edmond-Madeleine Joinville trained in Paris but spent most of his career in Italy. He painted views of Genoa, Venice, Rome and Naples. He may also have travelled to North Africa, having painted a number of harem scenes which may have been imaginary. He showed his work at the Paris Salon and, perhaps, he may be considered a worthy heir of the famous seventeenth-century French landscape painters Poussin and Claude Lorrain.

Many Italian artists found the combination of tumbling water, lush vegetation and classical ruins at Tivoli irresistible. Artists from other countries felt the same way. The site is just 30 kilometres north-west of Rome. It was easy to reach. This added to its popularity with travellers and artists. When Joinville painted this scene, Tivoli had been a favourite destination for more than a hundred years. Artists like Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Piranesi, Claude-Joseph Vernet, Richard Wilson and J.M.W. Turner had all visited to paint and sketch there.

The falls at Tivoli form where the River Aniene cascades over high cliffs into the valley below. It then joins the River Tiber. The buildings above the falls were long thought to be the ruins of a villa constructed by Caius Cilnius Maecenas. He was a wealthy patron of the arts and friend of Emperor Augustus. A ruin linked to great wealth gave the site another meaning. It suggested how worldly success passes quickly when compared with the power of nature. We now know that the villa was actually a sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Hercules Victorius. Artists always showed it as ruined and deserted. But when Joinville visited, the large amounts of water had, since the seventeenth century, helped mills and foundries to be built there.

This view of the falls looks across the valley from the Temple of Vesta, to the right of the Grande Cascata (large waterfalls). It was a popular vantage point. It let artists show the contrast between white cascading water and the lush foliage. It also gave them a chance to include the Roman Campagna, stretching to the horizon. In Joinville’s sketch, the brightness of the gushing water contrasts directly with the vibrant green of the hillside as the falls disappear into the valley below. The dark shadow of the valley also contrasts with the light, almost pink colours of the Campagna and the wispy clouds.

Joinville’s work is both signed and dated. This is highly unusual for oil sketches made outdoors. Most artists who made these works considered them to be preparatory steps towards larger, finished oil paintings. However, Joinville may have been thinking of selling the sketch.