Classical Landscape with Figures

Having traveled to Rome in 1634, the French painter Mauperché returned to Paris five years later and became an important exponent of classical landscape painting. During the 1640s and 1650s his patrons were among the most powerful people in France, including Cardinal Richelieu and Queen Anne of Austria. In comparison with other works by Mauperché, this painting is especially austere in its stagelike juxtaposition of classical architecture and warmly lit landscape. The exact character of the subject has not been identified, though the echo between the amorous couple and pair of dogs seems pointedly licentious.

This painting was seized by the Nazis from the Lanckoronski family in Vienna in 1939 and restituted in 1945.