‘Thou hast the sunset’s glow, Rome, for thy dower, Flushing the cypress tree, Temple and tower’

Cooke visited Rome at Christmas 1845 during his fifteen-month tour of Italy, during which he made copious sketches. By 29 December he was engaged on a sketch of 'Rome - Bridge and Castle of St Angelo; St Peter's, Hospital of Spiriti Santo, etc., the Janiculum Hill in the Distance', almost certainly the preliminary sketch for this picture. He later worked these sketches up in his studio in Barnes into larger scale paintings for sale. Cooke started exhibiting Italian, mostly Venetian, subjects at the R.A. in 1847 and this is the only painting of Rome that he exhibited.
Contemporary reviewers stressed the atmospheric quality of the painting. For instance the critic in the Illustrated London News praised it as 'A long narrow view of Rome at sunset; wonderful for truth and beauty', and the Art Journal declared it 'the best' of the artist's Italian subjects.