David Roberts visited Spain in 1832-3, five years after David Wilkie,and it was the architecture rather than the customs and costume of its inhabitants, which attracted him above all. Here, he depicts the fountain in the Retiro Park, with the Observatory in the background. This was one of many of Roberts’ Spanish subjects which were reproduced as engravings in the Landscape Annual (1835-8). Purchased by Queen Victoria and given by her to Prince Albert for Christmas in 1841