The Arch of Titus and the Coliseum, Rome (1846): Art, History and Details

The Arch of Titus and the Coliseum, Rome (1846) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Thomas Hartley Cromek (British, 1809–1873).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Thomas Hartley Cromek’s detailed renderings of classical ruins in Italy and Greece appealed to British visitors seeking mementos of their Grand Tour travels. Like many artists of his generation, Cromek went to Italy as a young man and settled in Rome, remaining abroad for 20 years and establishing a solid reputation as a watercolorist. Periodically he returned to England to court potential patrons and sell his work. Upon one of these journeys home, he was summoned to Buckingham Palace where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert purchased several watercolors. This drawing exemplifies the topographical accuracy and clarity of Cromek’s most successful work.

Object facts

• Title: The Arch of Titus and the Coliseum, Rome
• Date: 1846
• Creator attribution: Thomas Hartley Cromek (British, 1809–1873)
• Culture: England, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor with black ink and graphite underdrawing
• Dimensions: Sheet: 52.4 x 36 cm (20 5/8 x 14 3/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1975.149

A detail from the museum

According to a ledger recording Thomas Hartley Cromek's sales, the artist sold 13 versions of the image seen in this drawing.

Collection credit

Gift of the Reverend and Mrs. Danila Pascu

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Annual Report for 1975." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 6 (1976): 155-98.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (1976).
• Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.