Gezicht op de stad en het theater van Toarmine vanaf balkon van herberg te Giardini 1778

Louis Ducros made this watercolour of Taormina, Sicily, from a balcony in Giardini. Ducros’s picturesque view presents us with both a geographical survey and a social one. Note how the ancient theatre in Taormina is featured prominently on the mountainside, reminding us of the cultural legacy of the Grand Tour, a popular activity for wealthy Europeans at the time. But the artist also focuses our attention on the inn's balcony, where locals can be seen going about their daily lives, perhaps selling produce to visitors. Ducros was Swiss, but he spent much of his working life in Italy. The commercial art market in Rome offered rich opportunities for landscape painters. To understand Ducros's art better, we might look at guidebooks of the period that instructed tourists on what and how to see. We can then understand how artists like Ducros shaped popular taste.