James Duffield Harding

James Duffield Harding visited Italy first in 1824 and returned often, making sketches to publish as illustrations in travel books and as instructional tools in conjunction with his work as a drawing teacher. In this drawing he renders with precision the towers, parapets, and arcades of a medieval side street in the city of Bologna. An orange-striped canopy frames a cluster of peasants below, so that the bright colors of their garments become the picture’s focal point. Spare application of paint against a colored paper background adds depth to this scene, and such use of toned paper, which Harding pioneered, was soon widely adopted by other artists.