A park landscape with women and children beside a fountain

Best known for his watercolors and handcolored prints depicting scenes from the Grand Tour, Ducros painted this rare oil in Italy. Ducros stayed in Rome from 1776 until 1807, when he returned to his native Switzerland, dating this picture to some time in the early 1780s. He travelled extensively with a number of Italian and Swiss artists, including Giovanni Volpato, Antonio Canova, Pierre-Louise De la Rive and Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours. Ducros' prolific output of works on paper is due both to his enthusiasm and the popularity of his views of Italy and its ancient monuments. His collaboration with Volpato on a series of views of Rome's monuments, and local environs around 1780 brought him widespread fame and considerable wealth within his lifetime. Their success led to subsequent series of prints and watercolors of Naples, Sicily and Malta. The present composition, which was executed circa 1782-4, probably depicts a fountain in the gardens of the Villa Montalto-Negroni. Originally one of the homes of pope Sixtus V and latterly that of the Negroni family, the villa was sold to a speculator in 1784 and parts of the gardens were parceled off. A watercolor by Ducros, and a handcolored etching by Ducros and Volpato, depict the villa and the gardens showing the configuration of the poplars in the distance (see 'Images of the Grand Tour,' the Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, 1985-6, no. 66; and the painting sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 19 June, 1992, lot 213.