From 1873 till 1876 the artist lived mainly in Rome. Here he carefully observed the surrounding life in search of a plot for his report painting. In 1875 he finally defined it for himself, having decided to feature the leveling of the environs of Rome for the construction of new blocks. Extremely conscientious and demanding of himself, he performed hundreds of sketches and natural drawings, examining in minute details the situation in the excavations, the life of the diggers, their clothes, tools, horse harness, carts, etc. I. N. Kramskoy wrote about Kovalevsky to P. I. Tretyakov: "He impresses me with great conscientiousness and love for his work; he has no nerve, but plenty of knowledge and love (...)".

Depicting Italian workers and employees truthfully and naturally, Kovalevsky distinguishes the types attracting his attention: an agile horse driver, an energetic supervisor, and a tired digger with a pipe lying near intently working people. As always on Kovalevsky’s paintings, horses, which he never ceased to lovingly study all his life, are featured excellently. The artist, who suffered dire straits because of the need to constantly pay for nature, managed to complete his complex, multi-figure painting of a huge size with financial aid from M. M. Antokolsky.

The work brought the artist the title of academician and two gold medals at the World exhibitions in Paris (1878) and Berlin (1886).