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The great fashion for antiquity which captured Europe in the 1750s found reflection in the work of this major French landscape painter, Hubert Robert. Series of paintings showing the ancient monuments of southern France, in Provence and Languedoc, were commissioned from Robert by the king for his palace at Fontainebleau. The strict architectural outlines of the Maison Carree at Nimes, built by the Romans in 20-19 BC, are here softened by the hazy air of a grey day, and the street which leads into the distance melts into the mist. To the right in the foreground the artist showed himself drawing the building, signed and dated the picture - 1783 - the year in which he travelled through the south of France.