* Jakob Philipp Hackert Prenzlau 1737 - 1807 Florence

From early in his career, Hackert acquired a reputation for his precise and carefully detailed drawings.  After his arrival in Rome in 1768 the artist started to explore the surroundings and picturesque locations outside the city, using them as subjects for many drawings and paintings.  The sepia drawings such as this are very characteristic of his style and these highly finished drawings, although often used as the basis for his painted work, were also highly appreciated as works of art in their own right (for an article on Hackert's drawings executed in sepia see, W. Krönig, 'Sepia -Zeichnungen von Ph. Hackert', in Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch  33, 1971, p. 192).