French (?), 'Excavation of the Roman Theatre, Orange, France', mid-1850s

At the foot of towering walls, workers toil, breaking stones and moving them. A man pulls a wheelbarrow, others are working on a large block with hammers and chisels, and a third group are moving rocks from a huge pile. These men are clearing the site of an ancient Roman theatre as part of a restoration project. The theatre is in the French town of Orange in Provence and was built in the first century AD. Over the centuries it was stripped of stone for use elsewhere leaving only the stage wall, which can be seen on the left of the composition. It is enormous, reaching 103 metres in length and 37 metres in height. Its elaborate columns and niches can be made out in the sketch and the massive door, called the Royal Door, at the centre of the stage can also be seen. From the sixteenth century many of the inhabitants of Orange lived within its walls. The arches in the background are the edge of the seating area, which had been almost completely destroyed by the nineteenth century.

There are extensive graphite underdrawings in the composition indicating that the artist drew the outline of the buildings and then applied the oil paints. It may be that both stages were undertaken in the open air in front of the scene, or that the artist worked on the sketch in the studio. The rapidly executed brushwork and areas of broad colour may suggest the former, although the figures may have been added later. Most open-air sketches were made for use by the artist as part of the production of larger oil paintings. As such, they were rarely signed or dated.

The sketch was executed on lightweight writing paper made in England in the first half of the nineteenth century. A maker’s stamp on the paper reads ‘C. Wise Limited’. No records of a stationer by that name have been found. However, the use of the word ‘Limited’ suggests a date of at least 1855, as this was when limited liability became available in Britain for companies.

Restoration work on the theatre began in 1825 under the leadership of the architect and restorer of monuments Auguste Nicolas Caristie. He determined to clear the houses and bring the theatre back into use. By 1869, although work continued, it was able to host a Roman Festival. Prints of the theatre from the eighteenth century, such as that by Charles-Louis Clérisseau, depict the buildings within the walls. By the mid-nineteenth century, prints including that by Léon-Auguste Asselineau and the Rouargue Brothers show that the work inside the theatre was complete. This supports the tentative date of the 1850s for the oil sketch. Unfortunately, the identity of the artist remains elusive for now.