Via Appia

Via Appia is an exceptional example of John Linton Chapman's view of the ruins of this great Roman thoroughfare. Via Appia was built by the Roman censor Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 B.C. Approximately 350 miles long, the road originally connected Rome with the various Italian ports in the Southeast and Southwest of Rome and was also a main route to Greece and to the East. Near Rome, the road was lined with tombs, and many are still visible today in the same manner that Chapman captured them. In Via Appia, Chapman reveals an exquisitely detailed depiction of the ancient Roman roadway bathed in romantic glowing light. Classically trained as an artist by his father John Gadsby Chapman, Chapman spent 30 years of his life in Rome where his family moved from Washington D.C. when he was only nine. Chapman created luminous and highly detailed views of Italian life, particularly of the ancient Roman ruins.

On a trip to Italy in 1868, Henry Howard met Chapman and was impressed with the artist's ability to capture the radiant light of the Italian countryside. Howard commissioned the artist to paint Via Appia on this trip. Henry Howard entered political life in 1856 as a delegate to the National Republican Convention and was eventually elected Governor of Rhode Island in 1873 and re-elected in 1874. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Howard as Commissioner to the International Industrial Exposition held in Paris in 1878.