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Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct

Henryk Cieszkowski

Basic information

ID: Ж-2103
Author: Henryk Cieszkowski
Name: Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct
Country: Italy
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 27.5 x 69.5 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: landscape
Plot: Landscape
Provenance: Collection of Lviv City Gallery
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Henryk Cieszkowski
Artist's lifetime: 1835–1895
Country: Poland, Italy
Biography: Henryk Cieszkowski (1835, Płock – 1895, Rome) was a Polish landscape painter. He lived and worked in Rome.
He graduated from a secondary school in Lublin, and from 1848 to 1856 studied at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts under the renowned master of landscape painting Chrystian Breslauer (1802–1882). In 1858, thanks to a government scholarship, the artist moved to Rome, where he settled permanently.
He painted predominantly landscapes depicting Rome and its surroundings, views of the city itself, the Roman Campagna (Campagna di Roma), ruins, and historical buildings.
He frequently presented his works at exhibitions in Poland. His paintings were eagerly purchased by collectors in England and the United States. The works of Henryk Cieszkowski are held in museums in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, and Lviv.

Object description

One of Henryk Cieszkowski's most favoured themes was panoramic views of the Italian countryside, where a majestic antique heritage harmoniously coexisted with everyday rural life.
The lower part of the canvas depicts a small body of water where several cows have come to drink. The main focus of the painting is the majestic ruins of an ancient Roman aqueduct, rising against a clear sky and a mountain range on the horizon. Staffage figures of shepherds are visible at the foot of the watercourse walls.
The painting is imbued with the warm, diffused sunlight of the late afternoon. Deep, long shadows fall upon the ground from the stone structures. The artist masterfully combines a pastoral idyll with the elegiac motif of the transience of time and the beauty of antique ruins.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct

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