Gouache, 16.5cm by 21.5cm. Signed l.l.: Jacob Ph: Hackert, f: a Rom 1769.
The artist was born in Brandenburg, now part of Germany, where he trained initially with his father, a painter of portraits and animals.
He was briefly in Paris, where he concentrated on painting in gouache and is said to have been inspired by the leading landscape and seascape artist Claude Joseph Vernet (1714-1789).
After moving to Italy, he worked mainly in Rome and Naples, eventually becoming Court Painter to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.
He also worked extensively for Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador to the Court and for Catherine the Great of Russia, achieving recognition as a supremely talented landscape painter.
