Lacroix de Marseille enjoyed great success with both Italian and French patrons, yet surprisingly little is known about the details of his life. His early practice was closely connected with Claude-Joseph Vernet, with whom he probably worked in Italy. So talented a pupil did he become that the copies he made of Vernet’s four Times of Day for Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, 1st Baronet (c. 1714-1774) at Uppark House in 1751 were so perfect in their replication and deemed ‘so exact in every detail of brushwork that were it not for the signatures it would be impossible to distinguish them from the master’s works’ (see G. Jackson-Stops, The Treasure Houses of Great Britain, New Haven and London, 1985, p. 280). When Vernet returned to France in 1753, Lacroix’s work began to develop a more distinctive tone of its own, though his presumed master's work remained a guiding influence on him throughout his subsequent career. Lacroix remained in Italy for at least another decade, travelling to Naples, where he is recorded in 1757. By 1776, though, he was back in his native France and, according to Pahin de la Blancherie, died in Berlin in 1782.

This painting, and lot 206, were presumably painted towards the end of Lacroix’s career, after his return to France. They are unusual both in Lacroix’s work, and in capricci of the time more generally, for showing French, rather than Italian ruins; here, combining several Roman buildings in Nîmes in an imaginary landscape.