Gouache and watercolour, 35 by 51 cm (13 ¾ by 20 ins)

Provenance: the artist’s studio

Lawrence was the winner of the Prix de Rome in 1923, following on from Winifred Knights in 1920 and Thomas Monnington in 1922. The scholarship awarded each painter a prolonged period studying at the British School in Rome where they were encouraged to draw inspiration from Renaissance art and the city’s major archeological sites. This view of the Forum was one of a number of plein-air studies of Ancient Rome that Lawrence undertook in the course of his studies there.