The Falls of Tivoli

Gaspard Dughet painted the Roman countryside: rolling hills, waterfalls, ancient towns on rocky outcrops, shady trees and small figures, all arranged into balanced, classical landscapes. He also liked storms, with trees bent by wind and dark clouds. He was born in Rome in 1615. His sister married Nicolas Poussin, and Dughet studied with him, which is why he was long known as Gaspard Poussin. He became one of the leading landscape painters in Rome and decorated palaces including Palazzo Colonna and Palazzo Pamphilj. His works were very popular with British collectors in the eighteenth century, and Gainsborough and Constable admired him. The National Gallery in London has several of his landscapes. A View of Tivoli with the Teverone Flowing Beneath is typical, with the town high above the river gorge. He died in Rome in 1675.