Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros

Attributed to ABRAHAM-LOUIS-RODOLPHE DUCROS (Moudon, 1748-Lausanne, 1810)
"Interior of the Pantheon of Agrippa".
Watercolor on paper.
Measurements: 64 x 87 cm; 109 x 135,5 cm (frame).

The magnificent watercolor shown here of the interior of the Roman Pantheon of Agrippa, is attributed to Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros, a Swiss painter, watercolorist and engraver, a key figure of the pre-Romantic movement. His watercolors of the Roman period are characterized by the use of a palette that is both limited and rich in nuance, with strong tones that give them a highly pictorial finish. These elements can be seen in the work shown here, in which he has animated with characters from the Hadrianic period the imposing architecture with the zenithal oculus that filters a magical light.

In the 1770s, he produced a series of watercolors depicting "Views of Rome and its Environs" ("Vues de Rome et de ses environs"), such as the watercolor "The Temple of Peace" or "Ruins of the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forum" (1779), a version of which is preserved in the Yale Center for British Art. From these, in collaboration with Volpato, he published series of etchings based on his own watercolors, and which would be especially in demand during the Grand Tour. With Volpato he also worked on a second series of 14 interior views of the Pio-Clementine Museum (1792). The present view of the interior of Agrippa's monument, comparable to his watercolor of the Colosseum in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, should be placed in this context.

Recall that Piranesi (a contemporary of Ducros) also produced views of the interior of Agrippa. However, his engravings of the ruins of the Eternal City are imbued with a certain oppressive and terrifying charge, which is certainly not present in the broad perspectives offered by the interior rotunda of the Pantheon of Dupros, with its huge dome of coffered ceilings, through which tiny figures cut out against the light.

In 1782, Ducros opened his own workshop on the Strada della Croce, which operated with great success for the next decade. He sold his watercolors and etchings made with Volpato, Raffaello Morghen (Volpato's pupil and son-in-law) and his compatriot Jacques Sablet, but also views by competing artists such as Francesco Piranesi and Louis-Jean Desprez. Newspapers began to talk about him and wealthy travelers frequently visited his studio.

The son of a drawing master at the college of Yverdon, Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros arrived in Geneva in 1769 to study with Nicolas-Henri-Joseph de Fassin. He then left for Italy and settled in Rome at the end of 1776. In March 1778, he was hired by two Dutch nobles to accompany them on a four-month trip to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Malta, where he produced nearly three hundred watercolors (now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam). From 1777 to 1793 he remained in Rome as a landscape painter. In collaboration with the engraver Giovanni Volpato, he published in 1780 twenty-four engravings with views of Rome and its surroundings. In 1782, he received a commission from Paul Alexandervich of Russia to paint two pictures and, in 1782, another from Pope Pius VI. In 1784, Gustav III of Sweden was his largest buyer. But his main patrons were still English nobles traveling in Europe, such as Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Milford Hervey and Lord Breadalbane. The unrest resulting from the French Revolution led to the expulsion of many Frenchmen from the Papal States. Ducros, considered a Jacobin, was expelled in 1793. Ducros returned to Switzerland in the summer of 1807, first to Nyon and then to Lausanne. In Geneva he was made an honorary member of the Society of Arts in 1807. In Bern, he was appointed professor of painting at the Academy in 1809, but died, in Lausanne, before he could take up the post, on February 18, 1810. Most of his landscapes are preserved in the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne and in the English estates of Stourhead and Bramall Hall.