While at the Brooklyn Museum last Sunday, I came across a classical painting from 1869 by John Linton Chapman, titled "The Appian Way," which to me made history come alive.
I found the image of a like painting by the same artist from 1867, Via Appia, in the Resource Library of the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, in an essay, Classic Ground, by Paul A. Manoguerra, Georgia Museum of Art. It 
represents the introductory essay to the catalogue for the exhibit Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter at the Georgia Museum of Art in late 2004, and is well worth reading, IMO.
Click on the image above right to get a larger view of the painting.
Catalogue: Classic Ground: Mid-nineteenth-century American Painting And The Italian Encounter
Born in Washington D.C. in 1839, John Linton Chapman became known for his luminist-style, detailed paintings of Roman ruins and landscapes. He moved to Rome at age nine with his artist family which included his father and teacher, John Gadsby Chapman, and a brother, Conrad Wise Chapman. He remained in Rome until 1878, then moved to New York City, where he eventually died in poverty in 1905. (Adapted from Ask Art, which shows what looks like the Brooklyn Museum painting.)
This page shows an installation photo of the painting at the Brooklyn Museum.
