Probably by Jean Joseph Xavier Bidauld, 'Buildings by a Weir in a Mountainous Valley', around 1800

In the eighteenth century, Italy, and in particular Rome, emerged as an important destination for artists from across Europe. The weather was good and living costs were low. There were also many opportunities to study the art of antiquity as well as Renaissance masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo. Artists grouped themselves together in colonies, often with colleagues from the same country. French artists even founded an academy and established a prize system to encourage other artists to travel to Rome. More usually, groups of artists met in coffee houses and bars to exchange ideas with like-minded contemporaries. Information about scenes and subject matter was exchanged, as were ideas about technique and style.

For many artists in Italy, painting out of doors was a way to explore changes in light, climate and season. They would develop a body of preparatory work that could be used in more finished oil paintings. In most instances these sketches would not have been shown to the public. Indeed, many may have been lost when the artist died. Nevertheless, the act of painting directly from the subject and doing so outside was a common artistic practice.

There is no agreement on who painted this work. Some scholars suggested the French artist Jean Joseph Xavier Bidauld because he frequently painted fast-moving mountain streams. Here, water tumbles over a weir in the foreground, while the eye is led upwards over the densely wooded mountainside and towards an overcast sky. What may be mill buildings can be seen tucked behind the trees close to the water’s edge, although no mill is visible in the scene. The location is unclear. It is possible that it is somewhere in the Apennines in Abruzzo, which Bidauld visited during his stay in Italy.

Bidauld was briefly taught by the landscapist Claude-Joseph Vernet. He spent five years in Rome from 1785 to 1790. He worked in the Roman Campagna and then travelled south to Naples. He produced many oil sketches while in Italy, working in the open air. However, his sketches are neither rapid nor free in their handling. He seems to have favoured a patient study of his subject and meticulous application of paint. In this work the leaves are carefully delineated and the effects of light show close attention. He is known to have spent hours in front of a scene and to have returned many times over the course of days in order to achieve the desired effect, challenging the definition of a sketch. Bidauld never included figures in his landscape studies. He employed other artists to paint figures in his more finished oils.