Image source: collections.vam.ac.uk
Capriccio with Roman Ruins, a Pyramid and Figures
Artist:Francesco Guardi
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Victoria and Albert Museum |
| Location History: | This painting has been in the museum’s collection since 1882, when it came in as part of a bequest from John Jones, a London tailor and army clothier who died that January. Jones ran his business from 1825, later opening a branch in Dublin in 1840, and travelled a good deal between Ireland and France during those years before retiring in 1850. He spent his final decades living quietly at 95 Piccadilly. Jones built up one of the most significant British collections of French eighteenth century furniture and porcelain of his day, second only to the Marquess of Hertford and his son Richard Wallace. This Guardi capriccio came into his hands alongside that broader collecting interest, and when he died it passed to the V&A as part of the wider group of British watercolours and oil paintings included in his bequest, pieces that, like much of what he owned, reflected his long attachment to France. There’s no record before Jones acquired it of where the painting had been or who held it earlier. |
This evocative capriccio masterfully blends classical architecture with imaginative landscape design. The crumbling Roman columns and majestic arch, reclaimed by nature, establish a powerful sense of romantic decay. In the background, an enigmatic pyramid adds historical mystique, while tiny figures grounded in the foreground provide a striking sense of scale. It is a stunning, melancholic meditation on time's passage.
Information Compiled by
Shambhawi Singh