Landscape with a Grotto

Roos was known as Rosa da Tivoli, for he spent almost his whole life in Tivoli, just outside Rome. He travelled widely in Italy and took his inspiration from the landscapes he saw. In this interesting composition, which forms a pair to Landscape with a Waterfall, also in the Hermitage, the artist takes a rocky landscape and reflects it through his own individual perception of the scene. From the dark frame of the cave, a view opens out onto whimsically heavy cliffs, a ravine and running streams. The free, dynamic painting style and the contrasting use of light and shade allowed Roos to present a realistic Italian landscape in fantastical mood. In his romantic landscapes Rosa da Tivoli anticipated the discoveries of 19th-century painters.