The large watercolor depicting the whole valley of the Coliseum with the ancient amphitheater in the center of the composition.

At this is a subject Keiserman had dedicated many of his works: the extraordinary charm of the imposing ruins and especially the attention that the amphitheatre had aroused in the foreign travellers, induced Keiserman to produce different perspectives of the monument, and the particularity of this watercolor is its overview: this is not a detailed study of part of the Coliseum, but its inclusion in a more large view with all its valley.

The artist was a pupil, or rather, a collaborator of the Swiss painter Ducros, who along with the Italian artist Giovanni Volpato, represented in Rome a real “firm” of artistic production to meet the growing request of drawings and watercolours by the Europeans travellers who arrived in Italy for the Grand Tour.

Keiserman, when arrived in Rome was still a young painter but learned a lot from these artists, and with many difficulties due to the exuberance of his talent became one of the best watercolorist of the studio.

He understood the importance that the setting of the view exercised on the clients, so his paintings are always original, not only due at its inventiveness but also for its ability to study the techniques already led to an excellent level by the “firm” Ducros-Volpato: the landscape painting and prospective drawing.

After various vicissitudes due to the delicate historical moment, Keiserman departed from Rome, and later, once upon a time returned in the Eternal city, established a its workshop: so Keiserman began a relentless climb that brought him within a few years to be considered as a major artistic personalities in Rome in the years between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries.

Franz Keiserman, also known by his French name of François Keiserman,[1] 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.[2]  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.[3] 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)[4] 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.[5]

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.[6]

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.