Trajan's Arch, Ancona, Italy

Clarkson Stanfield visited Ancona in October 1838. An oil painting by him of Trajan's Arch, executed from a different viewpoint is in the Victoria & Albert Museum. Dated 1851, it was exhibited at the Royal Academy the same year. Another picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in the 1940s, is now lost but is known from a unique collotype at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. The present watercolour was executed from a similar viewpoint.

The arch at Ancona, now enclosed into more recent coastal fortifications, was built in honour of Trajan in 115 AD.

We are grateful to Pieter van der Merwe of the National Maritime Museum for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.