Object Description
Painted in Oil on Canvas, the genre work depicting an imagined Louis XVI era promenade through the Jardins de Tuileries in Paris, the scene populated with elegant men and women in the park, surrounded by public sculpture and a pavilion in the background. Signed, bottom right, ‘Lucius Rossi 1901.’
Franco-Italian, dated 1901
Lucius Rossi (1846-1913)
Rossi was an Italian painter whose career primarily flourished in Paris. He began his artistic education at the Academy San Luca in Rome, where he was influenced by the Romantic painters and the detailed technique of Spanish artist Marià Fortuny.
In 1867, Rossi relocated to Paris, where he was employed early on as an illustrator for publications like the English magazine, The Graphic. He quickly found success painting for the European high bourgeoisie, gaining commissions for aristocratic portraits, including the William Waldorf Astor family in 1875.
His elegant, detailed style and skill as a colourist were highly sought after. Rossi’s work often focused on rococo-style genre scenes and feminine figures in intimate, romantic interior settings. He exhibited at the prestigious Paris Salon and worked for the prominent dealer Adolphe Goupil, who helped reproduce his detailed, intriguing scenes for a wider audience. His paintings are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Clark Art Institute, while a selection of prints is kept at the British Museum.