The Trajan Forum, Rome
Oil Painting
1821 (painted)
1821 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Object Type
Before photography, painting was a primary way of recording remains of the ancient world, and many artists were commissioned to produce views of historic cities like Rome. Oil painting was a favoured as it was a more durable medium than watercolour painting. It was also more expensive and time-consuming than watercolour.
People
This painting was made by Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), who lived in Rome periodically between 1816 and 1830. He had studied architecture, and in Rome he recorded many of the city's ancient ruins. A private collector, following the example established by John Sheepshanks, donated it to the Museum.
Time
At the beginning of the 19th century, collecting pictures of Roman and Greek antiquities was a popular pursuit for wealthy and educated people. It had become fashionable in Britain after the discovery of ancient classical ruins in Italy and Greece, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, and was encouraged by the widespread study of Latin and Greek.
Places
One of the most famous places in Rome was the Forum of Trajan, which is depicted in this painting of 1821. This structure was built by the Emperor Trajan (BCE 53-117) and is best known for the tall column ('Trajan's Column') visible on the right of the scene.
Before photography, painting was a primary way of recording remains of the ancient world, and many artists were commissioned to produce views of historic cities like Rome. Oil painting was a favoured as it was a more durable medium than watercolour painting. It was also more expensive and time-consuming than watercolour.
People
This painting was made by Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), who lived in Rome periodically between 1816 and 1830. He had studied architecture, and in Rome he recorded many of the city's ancient ruins. A private collector, following the example established by John Sheepshanks, donated it to the Museum.
Time
At the beginning of the 19th century, collecting pictures of Roman and Greek antiquities was a popular pursuit for wealthy and educated people. It had become fashionable in Britain after the discovery of ancient classical ruins in Italy and Greece, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, and was encouraged by the widespread study of Latin and Greek.
Places
One of the most famous places in Rome was the Forum of Trajan, which is depicted in this painting of 1821. This structure was built by the Emperor Trajan (BCE 53-117) and is best known for the tall column ('Trajan's Column') visible on the right of the scene.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Trajan Forum, Rome (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil painting, 'Trajan's Forum, Rome', Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, 1821 |
| Physical description | Eastlake had one of the most distinguished careers of any nineteenth-century painter in Britain, becoming President of the Royal Academy and Director of the National Gallery. In 1812, at the age of nineteen, he wrote to his eldest brother William that he wanted to 'throw my mind back as far as possible, to the bright eras of Greece and Rome'; at the same time, he hoped for a gift from his father of a print of Trajan's Column. He lived in Rome between 1816 and 1830, and although he painted some genre scenes set in Italy, his aspirations were more for the Grand Manner. In the year he painted this picture, Eastlake wrote to his mother that he was attempting 'a union of History and Landscape'. The Emperor Trajan (AD 53-117) had built a new forum in Rome, now ruined apart from the famous Trajan's Column which is seen on the right of the painting. For the British, with its own expanding empire, ancient Rome held a fascination both intellectual and emotional. The principal contemporary spokesperson was Byron, who glorified the ancient world and mourned its demise. Eastlake's painting has the same Romantic synthesis of admiration and nostalgic regret for the 'glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome'. |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Bequeathed by John Forster |
| Object history | Bequeathed by John Forster, 1876. By Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in Plymouth, Devon, 1793, died in Pisa, Italy, 1865) Exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1872 Painted in Rome for Miss Catherine Fanshawe |
| Subject depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | Object Type Before photography, painting was a primary way of recording remains of the ancient world, and many artists were commissioned to produce views of historic cities like Rome. Oil painting was a favoured as it was a more durable medium than watercolour painting. It was also more expensive and time-consuming than watercolour. People This painting was made by Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), who lived in Rome periodically between 1816 and 1830. He had studied architecture, and in Rome he recorded many of the city's ancient ruins. A private collector, following the example established by John Sheepshanks, donated it to the Museum. Time At the beginning of the 19th century, collecting pictures of Roman and Greek antiquities was a popular pursuit for wealthy and educated people. It had become fashionable in Britain after the discovery of ancient classical ruins in Italy and Greece, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, and was encouraged by the widespread study of Latin and Greek. Places One of the most famous places in Rome was the Forum of Trajan, which is depicted in this painting of 1821. This structure was built by the Emperor Trajan (BCE 53-117) and is best known for the tall column ('Trajan's Column') visible on the right of the scene. |
| Bibliographic reference | Parkinson, R., Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 76-77 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | F.5 |
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| Record created | December 15, 1999 |
| Record URL |
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