This small painting showing a back street of old Rome dates from Fettes Douglas’s first study trip there in 1857. His viewpoint was from a window in the Palazzo Gualdo – since re-named Palazzo Chiovenda and the premises of Rome’s English theatre, Teatro Arciliuto - near Piazza Navona. He sensitively renders the brilliant contrasts of the Mediterranean sunlight and the dramatic deep shadows cast by the tall old buildings. In 1865 he gifted this little picture to the Royal Scottish Academy with which he had exhibited regularly and prolifically since 1845 and of which we had been elected a full member in 1854.