Bernardo Bellotto's A Capriccio River Landscape with a Church to the Left will star in an auction at Sotheby's New York.

The lot is valued at $1m-1.5m and will cross the block in The Road to Rome: A Distinguished Italian Private Collection on January 28.

Bernardo Bellotto studied under his uncle Canaletto

Bellotto studied under his uncle Canaletto, the famous Venetian landscape painter, who was a major influence on his work.

Bellotto was appointed as court painter at the Saxon court in Dresden during the mid-1750s. This painting dates to around 1765 and displays a capriccio or imagined landscape.

The record for Bellotto's work is $11m, set for a view of Venice's Grand Canal at Christie's in 2007.

Other lots in the sale include Gaspar Vanvitelli's A View of the Castel Sant'Angelo from Prati, which is estimated to bring in $300,000-400,000.

Vanvitelli (1653-1736) was a Dutch artist who pioneered the vedute (view) painting that became fashionable in Italy towards the end of the 17th century.

Mario Tavella, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Europe, comments: "This beautiful and academic private collection from the Eternal City encompasses two parts: the first contains stunning examples of Italian vedute, the second a beautiful neoclassical group of works of art and mosaics by distinguished Roman artists such as Valadier, Righetti, Raffaelli and Aguatti.

"These were assembled during the 20th century with the same passion and enchantment which spurred the buying habits of the grand tourists two centuries before."

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