" A Capriccio of Roman Architecture " by
Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (Moudon 1748 - 1810 Lausanne)

"A Capriccio of Roman Architecture (with Trajan's Column)" (c.1785),^[1]
Note: The presence of the Pantheon and the Colosseum next to Trajan's Column can be observed.

A capriccio with Roman architecture by Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (Yverdon [sic] 1748 - 1810 Lausanne)

inscribed:

"London
 à Monsieur Fischer a Vinsor
 Le Forum Romanum Composé
 avec les principe aux monuments
 de Rome." 

and with a printed label with instructions on hanging and preserving pictures and additional hand-written notes on hanging and preserving drawings;

Technique: traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolour, gum Arabic

Dimensions: 27 3/8 x 40 in. (69.3 x 101.7 cm)

From 1784 Ducros produced large scale drawings of which the present is a particularly large and accomplished example. These works were intended to be hung, like oil pictures, and were often laid down on canvas by the artist and framed. Such is also the case for the present drawing, which interestingly retains the original label with Ducros' printed instructions how to hang and preserve the work (see "Images of the Grand Tour. Louis Ducros 1748-1810", exhib. cat., Kenwood House and elsewhere, 1985-1986, appendix 3).
These large and decorative works were in high demand by English collectors and the present drawing was bought by an Englishman too; the inscription on the verso by Ducros reads 'London, à Monsieur Fischer a Vinsor [...]'.