Landscape with a Bather; Landscape with Lake and Castle on a Hilltop (verso)

Description

Born in Bologna, Grimaldi trained at the Carracci Academy before moving to Rome. There he disseminated the landscape tradition of the great Carracci family of artists in his own works, which were avidly collected. He produced countless paintings, drawings, and prints featuring imaginary, idyllic views inspired by the countryside around Rome. This drawing typifies these summer scenes with its softly flowing body of water and gently animated foliage. Grimaldi achieves a sense of peaceful reverie by carefully balancing his composition through strong anchoring horizontals and verticals, as in the trees and shoreline. He creates the illusion of depth by overlapping planes and subtle changes of tone. Grimaldi leads the viewer’s eye into this landscape by framing the lone bather between two outcroppings through which we catch a glimpse across the river’s surface to the distant shore and the fortified city and mountains beyond.
Gallery label text, collections gallery, by Curator Annette Dixon, February, 2000