A view of the Bosphorus with Istanbul and the Galata tower in the background

Giuseppe Maria Terreni was renowned for the fresco decorations that once adorned the chapels of his hometown Livorno, most of them destroyed during the Second World War. His numerous views such as the present one reflect the influence of artists like Giuseppe Zocchi and Jacob Philipp Hackert. Another version of the view offered here was in the David Ker collection (Christie’s, South Kensington, 5 November 2015, part of lot 124), while the Victoria and Albert Museum owns a closely comparable watercolor, a View of the entrance to the Black Sea from the Thracian Bosphorus taken from Keretch Bournu (inv. SD 1037), which is titled and signed on a label pasted onto a mount very similar to that of the Durand drawing.