Distant View of Rome

In the present drawing, two figures grace the Roman campagna as the dome of St. Peter's emerges from the skyline in the distance. Following his graduation with honors in the Mathematical Tripos from Trinity College, Cambridge, Brabazon rejected a career in law in favor of becoming an artist. He subsequently spent three years in Rome training and it is possible that the present sheet dates to that time. The drawing is signed with Brabazon's conventional inscription, "H.B.B." Sir Frederick Wedmore summarized Brabazon's career as an aristocratic and amateur artist by quipping that Brabazon was "a country gentleman who at seventy years old made his debut as a professional artist and straightway became famous."