Roman Mountainscape

The landscape painter Gaspard Dughet was born in Rome in 1615 to a French father and an Italian mother. He became a pupil of Poussin, who had married Gaspard’s sister the year before, in 1631. He later called himself Gaspard Poussin , after his teacher and brother-in-law. Dughet painted mainly imaginary landscapes based on the Roman campagna, whose atmosphere and light he was able to capture like no-one else. With a few exceptions his pictures do not depict identifiable places, but like the Roman Mountain Landscape, are invented landscapes. In the distance, beyond a narrow gorge with a waterfall, a sun-soaked hill topped by a little town rises out of the Campagna, which leads out to the horizon with its distant hills. On this side of the gorge, tall trees on the right and left frame a path leading into the distance, with some shepherds on it. Not all of Dughet’s pictures are dated; but our picture is dated to 1658/59 by the most recent critical style research.| Prestel Museum Guides - Gemäldegalerie Berlin , 2017