View of Vaucluse — Bence

A picturesque hand-coloured view of the village of Vaucluse, set beneath the dramatic cliffs that inspired Petrarch's verse.

Original title: Vue du Village de Vaucluse. Drawn by Bence; engraved by Ad. Pilon and Lorieux. From Voyage Pittoresque de la France. Paris, c. 1789.

Jean-Benjamin de La Borde's Voyage Pittoresque de la France (1781–1796) gave its readers an itinerary of the kingdom's most evocative landscapes. The Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, where the Sorgue gushes from the foot of a towering cliff, had been a literary pilgrimage site since Petrarch retired there in the fourteenth century — a Romantic ideal of nature, antiquity, and solitude that the engraver captures with topographical care.

Hand-coloured lithograph. Sheet approximately 59.0 × 42.8 cm. Very Good condition with light age toning.