After his return from Italy in 1812, the artist settled in Bois-le-Duc. In 1817 he moved to Amsterdam and there he renewed his knowledge of the 17th century Italianate landscape painters through his regular visits to the Rijksmuseum, then housed in the Trippenhuis. The handling of the light and the use of a repoussoir in the form of a ruin or a tree show the influence of Jan Both and others of his generation. Knip's working method consisted of combining in one picture several architectural or landscape motifs which he had drawn during his stay in Italy from 1809 to 1812.
No studies of the motifs in the present lot are known. However it is possible that in the present lot the building on the far right and the ruin to the left of it were inspired by motifs used in a painting executed in the previous year, the so-called View of Ischia (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). In this painting Knip used a drawing of the SS. Quattro Coronati, Rome, for the church on the right and a drawing of a section of the Coloseum, Rome, for the ruins on the left (see E. Bergvelt, J.A. Knip 1777-1847, exhibition catalogue, 1977, p. 139). The SS. Quattro Coronati also appears in a different rural setting in a drawing sold at Mak van Waay, May 1973, lot 560 (Bergvelt, op.cit., p. 143, no. 81)

See colour illustration