Under the soaring ceilings of his room and studio at the Villa Medici in Rome, Léon Pallière rested casually. He was a student of fine art, who had studied painting at the Parisian Academy before arriving in Rome for his education—as a “pensioner” of the French Academy. By 1817, when the intimate portrait was painted, the young man was just at the end of his five-year fellowship, about to return to France to commence his artistic career. In the picture, the room opens up to a wide vista and is filled with all kinds of everyday objects, which witnessed the indelible experience of his expatriate life intertwined with art, history, and the airy allure of the Eternal City….