Jakob Philipp Hackert Prenzlau 1737 - 1807 Florence

In late August of the year in which these gouaches were executed, Hackert travelled for the first time to Rome, accompanied by his brother, Johann Gottlieb Hackert. This journey was to change his style for ever, and clearly the present works, with their northern rather than Italian subjects, must have been made earlier in the year. As the artist travelled extensively in France between 1765 and 1768, it is probably there that they were executed, a conclusion supported by the fact that the artist used the French form of his name in the signatures, and that there are even compositional reminiscences here of the works of French artists such as Vernet or Lacroix de Marseille.

Several watercolours of French views, also dated 1768, are known, though apparently no gouaches; examples include views of or near Vacluse, Remoulins, Nîmes, Cannes and Antibes (see Claudia Nordhoff and Hans Reimer, Jakob Philipp Hackert 1737-1807, Verzeichnis seiner Werke, 2 vols., Berlin 1994, cats. 579-586).