Attributed to Johann Christian Reinhart Hof, Bavaria 1761 - 1847 Rome

Johann Christian Reinhart arrived in Rome at the end of 1789 and soon became a central figure in the German colony in the city where he lived until his death.  He seems to have been particularly interested in the study of trees d'après nature.  The present example can be compared with Reinhart's painting of a group of chestnut trees, in the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen (inv. no.139), which is signed and dated 1793, at the beginning of his sojourn in Rome (see Paysages d'Italie, Les peintres du plein air (1780-1830), exhibition catalogue, Paris, Grand Palais and Mantua, Palazzo Te, 2001, p. 204, no. 123, reproduced).