Museum News, Toledo Museum of Art, 1964, p. 92;
A Guide to the Collections, The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo 1966, reproduced  (as Salvator Rosa);
B.B. Frederickson and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenty-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge 1972, pp. 177, 254, 641 (as Salvator Rosa);
The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo 1976, p. 143, reproduced Plate 21 (as Style of Salvator Rosa);
L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del seicento a Roma, Rome 1977, vol. 2, p. 586 (as possibly by Francesco Cozza);
J. Scott, Salvator Rosa, His Life and Times, New💦 Haven 1995, p. 235, under note 13 (as Rosa).

In his description of the paintings at Sans-Souci, Matthias Oesterreich singled out the landscapes of Pietro Bianchi for praise, noting that "ses tableaux son singulièrement beaux mais difficiles à avoir."¹  Indeed that might be said of all of his pictures, as they rarely come to the market, although a beautiful pair of gouaches representing Diana and Acteon and the Rape of Europa were recently sold in these rooms.²  This is probably due to the artist's relatively short life (he died at about the age of 44, from-- it was said--  overexertion in his garden), but also because many of his landscapes have fallen under the name of other artists, such as in the case of the present canvas.  To be sure, the composition of the present painting does have some influence of Rosa, particularly in the depiction of the wild rocky outcrops, while the undulating trees are reminiscent of Locatelli and Orizzonte, who, upon first seeing Biachi's landscapes was said to have been "stupefatto."

We are grateful to Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri for proposing an attribution for 🐽this painting to Pietro Bianchi, based on photographs.

1 [Trans: His paintings are singularly beautiful but difficult to get].  Quoted by Anthony Clarke, who wrote a defining study of the artist ("Introduction to Pietro Bianchi," in Studies in Roman Eighteenth-century Painting, Washington DC, 1981, pp. 48-53).

2 Sale: Sotheby's, New York, January 23, 2003, lot 76 (s꧑old for $131,200).