This spectacular view of St. Peter's Square drawn and coloured by Franz Keisermann as he himself mentions ‘sur la nature’ may well be considered one of the Swiss artist's most successful works. The perfect perspective of the square and the Bernini's colonnade is centered by the magnificent bulk of the basilica.  The carefully drawn figures in the foreground are undoubtedly by the hand of Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781 -1835), who collaborated with the Swiss artist from 1803 to 1809.

Also embellishing the sheet is the dedication to the Duke of Berswick, descendant of a cadet branch of the King of England.

It is very likely that the Duke acquired our view from Keisermann himself during one of his first trips to Rome (1814-1815, 1815-1818).

Carlos Miguel FitzJames Stuart VII Duke of Berwick and XIV Duke of Alba (Madrid 1794 - Sion, Switzerland 1835), was the son of Jacob FitzJames Stuart V Duke of Berswick and Maria Teresa de Silva y Palafox.

Born a few days after the sudden death of his father, he first received the title of Duke of Berwick, inheriting that of Duke of Alba in 1802. Together with the title of Duke of Alba, he inherited also the one of Grand Duke of Spain.

On his father's side he descended from a branch of the House of Stuart, his ancestor, James FitzJames I Duke of Berswick being the illegitimate son of James II of England.

He married the Sicilian Rosalia Ventimiglia (1798-1868), of the Princes of Grammonte by whom he had three children. He died on 7 October 1835 in Sion, Switzerland.

The young Duke's first trip to Italy is documented as early as 1814 in the company of his mother, to be followed by four more. In 1816, several views by artists active in Rome and contemporary with him are documented in his collection, including Huber, Granet, Verstappen and Giambattista Bassi, and is mentioned ‘twelve magnificent views of Rome that he had requested from Franz Keisermann’ among which ours can certainly be included.

François (Franz) Keiserman

Yverdon (Switzerland), 1765 – Rome, 1833

Franz Keiserman, also known by his French name of François Keiserman,^[i] was born in Yverdon in Switzerland in 1765. After training as a landscape painter, he moved to Rome in 1789.

He was beckoned to the Papal capital by his fellow countryman Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (1748-1810) to “collaborate” in the preparation and finishing of the pictures executed in his studio.^[ii]  Ducros, who was already famous at the time, had set up a proper workshop, together with the Italian Giovanni Volpato (1735-1803), in order to satisfy the increasing demand for sketches and watercolours by Europeans who were travelling to Rome.

The young painter from Yverdon learnt a great deal from these artists and his talent greatly contributed to the success of the Ducros-Volpato studio, which, up to 1793 never encountered moments of crisis. But in that same year the anti-French uprising in Rome caused his business to suffer a sudden setback and many of the artists and foreign travellers who were in the Eternal City at the time moved to Naples and Florence.

Keiserman decided to leave too and moved to the parthenopean capital for a brief period. The dates of this sojourn are not backed by any proven documentation; however, presumably, this took place between 1795 and 1798. In Naples he also met Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) who had lived in Rome and from 1786 was court painter to King Ferdinand IV (1751-1825).

In 1798 Keiserman returned to Rome and took up residence at number 31 in Piazza di Spagna.^[iii] In these years he finally managed to set up his own studio and during this time his rising popularity led him to being considered one of the top artistic figures in Rome on the threshold between the 18^th and 19^th century.

Around 1799 (according to Raggi) or 1803 (according to Falconieri)^[iv] he met the young Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781-1835) and began a successful collaboration with him:  while Keiserman concentrated on landscape painting, Pinelli completed the Swiss artist’s works with figures. This partnership ended in about 1809 although the artists maintained a good relationship and continued to have different forms of collaboration.^[v]

In 1806 Keiserman invited over from Switzerland his cousin Jean François Knébel as a figure painter. However, Knébel died in 1822, and then Keiserman beckoned to Rome another member of the Knébel family, Charles François (1810-1877) who became his adopted son.^[vi]

Keiserman’s clients were noblemen such as Prince Camillo Borghese, Prince Gustav of Sweden and the Russian prince Volkonskij.  His most popular subjects were, amongst others, the Waterfalls of Tivoli, the countryside around the Colli Albani, ancient Rome, and the temples in Paestum; works that were praised and described in the artistic chronicles of the time.

He died in 1833, acknowledged, also by his contemporaries, as an artist of great stature. His adopted son, Charles François Knébel, the beneficiary of his last will and testament, inherited his art collections and his studio in Piazza di Spagna.