These sheets came into existence at the urging of the artistically ambitious Jean-Claude Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non (1721-1791). Together with mutual friends at the French Academy in Rome, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hubert Robert, and LouisJean Desprez, they created over 500 illustrations for texts by Dominique Vivant-Denon, which the Abbé published between 1781-1786 in Paris. Under the title Le Voyage pittoresque ou Déscription historique des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, these travel descriptions immediately enjoyed an unexpected proliferation. Our view A was etched by Joseph de Longueil with only minor deviations and was included in the printed publication (Volume III, Chapter X, Plate 97).