Monte Pincio

August Jansen reached Italy at the age of 43 in 1924 during his first study visit. Jansen painted Monte Pincio on several occasions. It is possible that the person who recommended that region to him was Ants Laikmaa, who mentioned Monte Pincio in his Italian travelogues. It is a luxury resort with pompous towering villas, and Jansen has attempted to render both the natural abundance and the resplendent architecture. The reddish building on the hilltop is Casina Valadier, constructed by the famous architect Giuseppe Valadier on Napoleon’s commission in 1817. The building was in rather dire straits at the beginning of the 20^th century, but by the time Jansen got there, a restaurant had been set up in the villa.

However, Jansen has placed special emphasis on the garden and the trees of different colour. He has divided the composition into different zones in which trees rendered with more spontaneous and casual brushstrokes alternate with the more rigidly constructed garden in the foreground and the house in the background.