Aqueduct near Rome

The painting was completed in Cole's studio in Florence, based on sketches made while he was visiting Rome.

The original painting was acquired in 1987 by Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

A skull in the left foreground alongside fallen architecture is a memento mori, mediating on time and impermanence.

The painting was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1833, and it was engraved by James Smillie.

The composition was successful, and the work was described by Nathaniel Parker Willis as "one of the finest landscapes ever painted" (published by John Macrone in 1835).

Cole, Aqueduct near Rome , 1832, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum
Cole, Roman Campagna , 1843, Wadsworth Atheneum