View from Ariccia near Albano

With its gentle slopes and luxuriant forest, the stunning site of Ariccia attracted many German travelers in the 1800s. Ernst Fries stayed in the area during the summer of 1824, when he drew this striking view.

While the Mediterranean is discernible in the distance, the composition is almost entirely dominated by masses of trees, whose complex, dynamic forms are rendered brilliantly with graphite. The different degrees of finish, from the barely sketched-out foreground to the highly defined middle ground, contribute to the haunting quality of this sheet.