View of the Caelian Hill, Rome, with the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, seen from the Aventine, Rome. Artist: Joseph Vernet (French, Avignon 1714-1789 Paris). Dimensions: Sheet: 11 7/8 × 17 5/16 in. (30.1 × 44 cm). Date: ca. 1750.Vernet was the most admired landscape specialist in eighteenth-century France. He traveled to Italy in the late 1730s, where he remained until 1753, when he was summoned back to France to for a commission from king Louis XV to paint a series of canvases depicting the Ports of France.His style was influenced by earlier masters, like Claude Lorrain, but also deeply indebted to the first-hand study of nature. This drawing of the Caelian Hill in Rome was made around 1750 and part of an album assembled probably in Vienna in the early 19th century. A meticulous distant view of the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo is contrasted by the abstract treatment of rooftops in the foreground. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.