This is La Rocca Maggiore in Assisi, painted from the nearby gorge at Richmond’s favourite time, in the twilight just after sunset. It was first exhibited in 1914 at the Fine Art Society, alongside other views of Umbria and Assisi, where Richmond had been staying with an order of Franciscan monks the summer beforehand. In his 1919 memoir Assisi: Impressions of Half a Century, the artist recalls wandering ‘down or along the deep gorge behind the castle of Barba Rossa, known now as La Rocca … and in a kind of half-dream taking things in without an effort … often pocketing my sketchbook that I might the more readily forget my business, and become saturated with the beauty of nature.’ (pp 36-37)

William Blake Richmond was a student of Lord Leighton at the Royal Academy in 1856, and in '59 started his travels through Italy to study the Italian masters.  In Rome, between 1855-69 he studied under Costa, who was a great influence to him. They shared a love of Italian landscape, which featured in much of his other genres of painting.