This gouache and watercolor painting shows the Spanish Steps in Rome in a style that can be described as Impressionistic in its portrayal of the staircase and fountain and at the same time fanciful in the artist's inclusion of 18th Century figures and a horse-drawn carriage with footmen.  Signed lower right "R. Montague 1954." Painting size: 16 x 22 1/2 inches.
 
Roderic Montagu O’Connor was a French-born Irish-American (1907-2001) AKA Roderic Montagu.  He was a noted impressionist painter and muralist primarily known for his compositions of Roman architectural ruins, Venetian scenes, portraits, landscapes and still lifes.  He was born in Clamart, France, a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris.  He was the son of the well-known American-Irish sculptor Andrew O’Connor (who had settled in Paris c.1903 with his wife Jessie. Roderic first came to the United States in 1914 with his family and settled in Paxton, MA.  Over the course of his career, Roderic had lived and exhibited in London, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Florida, including the Societé des Artistes annual Salon exhibition, Paris 1938, and other Paris Salons throughout his lifetime.  His numerous portraits were exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in Dublin, Ireland.  Throughout his career, Roderic maintained studios in Paris, Rome, and London, and later resided with his wife Ruth Maxwell O’Connor in Palm Beach, Fl.  He died on March 6, 2001 at the age of 93.  He typically would sign his paintings with only his first and middle names as ‘Roderic Montagu’.  A marble bust of Roderic as a teenager was sculpted by his father in 1924 and is in the collection of the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane (formerly the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art), Ireland.