Locatelli, one of the foremost painters of classical landscape in eighteenth-century Rome, was employed by both Italian and foreign patrons.  His idealising style and his repertoire of motifs – natural arch, rocky outcrop, waterfall, lakes and slanting trees – have their origin in the landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, but he adopted something of the more energetic handling of Gaspard Dughet and Salvator Rosa. The long, narrow format of this painting and its pair indicates that they were made as overdoors. They were formerly at Bruntsfield House in Edinburgh.