Lot 2564 Dα

Herman Corrodi, born in Rome, was the son of the renowned artist Salomon Corrodi and was first taught to paint by his father before continuing his studies abroad. Among many other teachers, he learnt under Lawrence Alma Tadema, Alexander Calame and Alfred van Muyden. He began studying at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1866 and later became a member and professor there. Corrodi was a landscape painter but also an avid traveller, and thus he not only painted the landscapes of his native Italy, but also the places that he visited: Egypt, Syria, Cypress, and Constantinople.

Corrodi was a highly productive artist and was most renowned for his Oriental scenes. His patrons included the British royal family as well as many French, Russian, and Spanish aristocrats. Caroline Juler remarks that Corrodi had “a very unique technique, characterised by the use of subtle and finely nuanced tones, the play of light and shadow and the depiction of inspiring themes, both abstract and narrative” (C. Juler, Les Orientalistes de l'Ecole Italianne, Paris, 1994, p. 66).

The Baths of Caracalla exerted a certain Romantic fascination on the artists of the 19th century. They were depicted by painters such as Heinrich Bürkel and J. M. W. Turner. Corrodi frames his painting as a view seen from inside the abbey walls over the terrace, lending his depiction the almost photographic realism that is one of the defining characteristics of his work.

A smaller version of this motif, possibly a preparatory study, was sold by Bonham's in London on 16th April 2008 as lot 92.