Lot Essay
The American artist and interior designer Lockwood de Forest, trained as a painter in Rome where he studied in 1868. There he became a close friend with the American landscape painter Frederick Church who was returning from a tour in Egypt and Lebanon. De Forest noted in his dairy from the 18th December that year, "This afternoon went to some antiquity stores with Mr. Church, where there were a great many curious things, but almost all expensive". They were to meet again in Athens in 1869, where they spent time painting the Parthenon and the ruins on the Acropolis together.