Illumination de la Croix de Saint-Pierre (An Interior of St. Peter's from the South Transept, with the Baldacchino, the Illuminated Hanging Cross, and St. Longinus)

Desprez moved from Paris to Rome in 1777 having won the Prix de Rome the previous year. In 1781 he began collaborating with Francesco Piranesi, son of the Giovanni Battista, on a series of hand-coloured etchings created for the Grand Tour market and depicting well known sites of Rome, Naples and Pompeii.

Wollin records eight impressions of this state, including three hand-coloured examples: one in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, and two at the École Polytechnique, Paris.