Lake Nemi and Genzano from the Terrace of the Capuchin Monastery

Wilson's Lake Nemi and Genzano from around 1756-57 depicts the volcanic crater lake south of Rome that had been a favorite subject for landscape painters since Claude Lorrain established the Roman Campagna as the supreme landscape painting subject. Lake Nemi — Diana's Mirror in classical mythology — was associated with the cult of Diana and her mysterious priest-king, a figure that James Frazer would later make famous in The Golden Bough. Wilson was in Italy from 1750-1758, the period that transformed him from a portraitist into the founder of British landscape painting. His Italian landscapes established the standard for the classical landscape genre in Britain.

Wilson's technique synthesizes Claude's atmospheric luminosity with direct observation of the Italian landscape. The volcanic lake is rendered with extraordinary atmospheric depth, with warm tones in the foreground graduating to cool, hazy blues in the distance. The composition from an elevated terrace creates a panoramic view that emphasizes the landscape's sublime grandeur.