High expectations were placed in the young Carl Philipp Fohr, one of the outstanding draughtsmen of his generation in Germany. Death overtook Fohr at an early age; he drowned while bathing in the Tiber. This composition of a mountain landscape before the gates of Rome was a study for what was to be his last painting.

He had been in Rome since 1816. The city was an international meeting place for the artists of the time, who shared a search for new – if greatly differing – artistic approaches. Among Fohr’s friends was Johann David Passavant, a later inspector of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut. Passavant bequeathed to the museum a sizeable portfolio of drawings by the promising young talent.