![Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - The Roman Campagna, with the Claudian Aqueduct [c.1826]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7348/15829055953_573eba2559_o.jpg)
The sketch is one of the open-air studies produced by Corot during his stay in Rome in 1825-8. Executed in oil on paper, the painting is noteworthy for the freedom and spontaneity of its handling, a forerunner of the open-air sketches that Corot was to produce in the years after his return to France, like the Seine near Rouen of about 1830-5. A morning scene, the painting shows the Alban Hills and the aqueduct of the Aqua Felice with a medieval tower in the centre. To the right and left are the arched ruins of the Aqua Claudia. The dense shadows contrast with the otherwise sunlit landscape.
[National Gallery, London - Oil on paper, laid on canvas, 22.8 x 34 cm]