Bagni itself was also in vogue in this same period, and would have been an ideal setting for that “emotional” tree in the foreground. Finally, there are the curve of the bridge and the proportionate relationship between it and the river’s width, both near-perfect matches with the central Bagni di Lucca bridge and the Lima River.

Bravo Towler!

It’s definitely not Fabbriche – that’s arched on top whereas this is more or less flat. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t get fashionable ladies in pretty coloured dresses bathing up there in 1834 – everyone was too busy dying of cholera.

I would have thought that any go-ahead romantic painter at that time would head for Bagni di Lucca, which might make this Ponte a Serraglio. There’s an engraving in Evangeline Whipple’s old book “A Famous Corner of Tuscany” which looks a bit like this, with the path coming down to a little beach on the bank around that point. The buildings are a bit stylized in both but vaguely recognizable.

Here are the only modern pictures I can find. Look for example at the two little arches low down to the right of the bridge in your picture and in my second one. They’re sort of in the wrong place, but maybe they built a new bridge next to the old one? I’m in England now, unlike all my history of Bagni di Lucca books apart from Ms. Whipple’s, so I can’t verify this. Anyone like to blow my theory apart?

Anyway, just a thought.

EDIT; If you leave out the changeable human-constructed features in the painting – compare the angle and contours of the ridgeline above the bridge in the painting and in my bridge2.jpg. These, and the steeply upward-sloping feature in the forest above and to the right of the bridge, look pretty much the same in both.