Francesco Londonio was an Italian painter born in 1723 in Lombardy. He was a pupil of Ferdinando Porta in Milan, and was known for his refined pastoral scenes inspired by the art of Castiglione and the Flemish masters. He mostly preferred small-format works, describing shepherds and peasants with rapid strokes of the brush and with a vigorous and chromatically lively pictorial paste.

Londonio's talent allowed him to be one of the most appreciated painters of reality active in Lombardy, between Arcadia and the Enlightenment. However, he is often considered a minor artist or one of exclusive antiquarian interest. The paintings in question represent a peculiar addition to the artist's catalogue, as proof of his prop...