Tiber Landscape

Roethlisberger has proposed a date in the mid-1630s for this riverine view on the basis of its subject matter and technique. At the time Claude had not yet fully embraced the classical subject matter which preoccupied him for most of his artistic career. He was still working in a pen and wash style reminiscent of his Flemish predecessors in Rome such as Bartholomeus Breenbergh. The drawing was later extended with the addition of the sky and is made up at lower right. Roethlisberger reproduces the sheet without the later additions, which likely were carried out when the sheet was mounted, presumably by Richardson as the additions regularized the sheet around which he placed his gold border.