Attributed to Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros Moudon 1748 - 1810 Lausanne

The attribution is due to Dr. Claudia Nordhoff (private communication 24 September 2006). She compares the present work to a view of the same scene painted by Ducros in 1782-3, today in the Pavlovsk Palace Museum, St. Petersburg.¹ Ducros' canvas depicts the visit of the Grand Duke Paul of Russia, the son of Catherine II and later Tsar Paul I, together with his young wife Maria Feodorovna in the spring of 1782. This formed one of two pictures painted for the Grand Duke, the other, also at Pavlovsk, depicting his visit to the Roman Forum.² The view is here taken from a very similar standpoint, but from closer to the spectacular rock arch, which thus obscures the view of Tivoli itself on the cliffs above. The site, which lay directly below the Temple of the Sibyl and opposite the great cascade, was one of the foremost picturesque attractions of the gardens of the Villa Gregoriana, and much frequented by the tourists who visited Tivoli. It was clearly frequented by Ducros, and a number of sketches of the falls are recorded in his sketchbooks in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne. The viewpoint adopted here by Ducros is unusual, and allowed him to concentrate upon the details of rocks and vegetation, which are very similarly handled in both this and the Pavlovsk painting.

Works by Ducros in oil are now extremely rare, but between 1782 and 1786 he is known to have painted several works in this medium. Apart from the pair now in St. Petersburg, these included two depictions of the visit of Pope Pius V to the Pontine marshes (Rome, Palazzo Braschi, and Pavlovsk Palace Museum, St. Petersburg),³ a history piece in 1785 for Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry and 4th Earl of Bristol, and two views of the cascades of Terni and Tivoli in the same year for Lord Breadalbane.  In his Journal of 1784-5, Lord Grey, later 1st Earl of Wilton, describes how "We went to see the paintings of M. du Cros, a landscape painter who seems to have a good deal of merit. His views of the Fall of Terni are much admired".  Despite this acclaim for his pictures, Ducros did not persevere in this vein, instead keeping to the large watercolour landscapes whcih were to become his speciality after this date, and for which he is now best remembered.

1. Exhibited, Lausanne, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Kenwood, Iveagh Bequest, Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Images of the Grand Tour. Louis Ducros 1748-1810, 1985 - 86, no. 56, reproduced.
2. Exhibited, London, Tate Gallery, Grand Tour. The lure of Italy in the eighteenth century, 1996-1997, no. 95;