Rome: the Isola Tiburtina; and Rome: the Tiber with the Castel Sant'Angelo beyond

Thomas Jenkins, who sold these pictures in Rome in 1765, was one of the foremost of those British dilettanti who, in the eighteenth-century, performed the multiple roles of banker, advisor, guide and dealer to the English Grand Tourists. Whilst amassing a private art collection of considerable fame, Jenkins became a favourite of Pope Clement XIV, and Sir William Hamilton to an audience with him in 1772. He received the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland, and was Angelica Kauffman's banker (who painted him with his niece 'out of friendship'). In 1793 Sir William Forbes described him as 'a sort of Introductor to British travellers residing in Rome, where there being no British Ambassador, Mr. Jenkins may be said to have done the honours of the nation.'