Sheet of Studies: Seated Man, Head of a Dog, Seated Woman

At age 20, Claude-Joseph Vernet traveled to Italy, where he remained for two decades, painting landscape views of the Roman countryside and stormy, imaginary seascapes for Italian aristocrats and wealthy French and British tourists. Vernet populated his paintings with contemporary figures based on sketches from life, such as the three shown here. Drawn at different times in different media, together they form an amusing glimpse of Italian street life in the 1700s.