Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas and the people of Rome (1817-1818)

How would a French man have considered Rome at the beginning of the XIX century? Chaotic and noisy, for sure, but also full of colours, sounds and even fragrances. A town which was populated by both characteristic and anonymous faces. People’s trades were the pumping heart of streets and squares, together with the rituals, shared by the common people, the nobles and the clergy, observed every day of the year, as if they were the beads of a rosary, in order to define time and seasons.

The painter Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas was so impressed by this kaleidoscope of daily life that, during his stay between 1816 and 1818 and after winning the Academy of France’s Prix de Rom, he decided to make quick sketches from life. Only after going back to France, the author selected his works and divided them into 12 sections, each of them corresponding to one month of the year, with the images always accompanied by a descriptive text. Finally, it was François Le Villain who produced the lithographs that are now part of the volume “Un an à Rome et dans ses environs”, edited by Firmin Didot first in 1823 and then in 1830.