Watermark: none.
This sketch depicts a first century BC Roman temple in Tivoli, known as the Temple of Vesta, perched on the acropolis above the falls of the Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber. The round temple was a favorite motif of the artist, who made numerous drawings of it and incorporated its round, ruined form set in rocky heights in a number of paintings. In the painted versions, however, the temple appears as it might have in classical antiquity, without the accretion of modern structures seen in this closely observed study. A painting attributed to a follower of Claude closely features the same temple and surrounding buildings (Christie's, South Kensington, 31 October 2001, lot 169).
A second sheet that passed through Richardson's collection and is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is inscribed “Vignia di Papa Giulio,” apparently in the same hand as the present sheet. Roethlisberger expressed reservations about the handling of the architecture, but felt the manner in which the trees are executed confirmed the attribution to Claude.
Inscribed in a later hand at upper left, in pen and brown ink, "Veduto di Tivoli"; at lower left, "CG" (possibly a monogram, according to Roethlisberger; see also 2017.150).
Richardson, Jonathan, 1665-1745, former owner.
Bouverie, Edward, 1767-1858, former owner.
Bale, Charles Sackville, 1791-1880, former owner.
Wellesley, Henry, 1791-1866, former owner.
Newman, V. W., former owner.
Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, Baron, 1830-1896, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, III, 78.
Roethlisberger, Marcel, Claude Lorrain. The Drawings, 1968, no. 39.