The Gulf of Naples, with the Island Ischia in the Background

Knip spent 1809 to 1812 in and around Rome, drawing ruins, churches and hillsides in watercolour. Six years after coming home he built this picture from those sheets. In 2013 the Rijksmuseum bought 46 of his Roman studies, among them views of Nero's aqueduct and the church of Santi Quattro Coronati, both quoted in this canvas, so the sources and the painting now belong to one collection.

Every element was assembled in the studio. The broken arches, the monastery on its hill and the fragment of a column capital beside the pool were each taken from a study and set down above the Gulf of Naples, with Ischia and its mountain on the horizon. On the paved road a figure in a white habit talks with a man walking his dog, another dog trotting nearby, and Knip signed and dated the canvas on the paving.