Neapolitan School, Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption – Late 19th-century oil painting
Neapolitan School, Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption – Late 19th-century oil painting
Neapolitan School, Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption – Late 19th-century oil painting
Neapolitan School, Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption – Late 19th-century oil painting

Neapolitan School Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption

€457,95
€457,95
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View the full Collection: Italian School Vedute

An original late 19th-century oil painting – Neapolitan School, Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in Eruption.

A tranquil late-19th-century Neapolitan School view looking across the Bay of Naples towards the smoking Vesuvius. A lone fisherman tends to his nets in the boat in the foreground; the salmon-pink facades of the Strada del Molo and Castel Sant'Elmo shimmer in the distance.

This charming oil painting is a typical example of a Neapolitan School veduta produced for the Grand Tour market in the late 19th century. It shares with the Neapolitan gouaches of the time a simplified use of motif and iconography to communicate the iconic view. The buildings are rendered as brief suggestions of flattened multi-windowed blocks, the foreground figure is anonymous and the boat is rendered with economy and fluidity. The style resembles that of the Neapolitan School artist Count Antonio Coppola (1839–1916), who created numerous Grand Tour views that were highly sought after by European travellers.

Oil on canvas on stretchers.

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Italian School Vedute

Italian School vedute, most commonly executed in gouache, were produced by local Italian artists for a foreign market of Grand Tour travellers, eager to return home with souvenirs. The veduta style—a landscape or city view that is largely topographical—had its origins in the 18th-century work of Canaletto and Luca Carlevaris in Venice. Their grand and intricate compositions reflected the 'stage-set'-like quality of the buildings of Venice, and—whilst seemingly topographically accurate—they would distort and manipulate views to suit their pictorial ends. The more modest and affordable works serving the souvenir market such as these gouaches also embody this element of staging, aptly using a degree of artistic licence to capture the awe-inspiring—and almost unbelievable—sites of the Italian Grand Tour.

The iconic monuments of Italy's ancient cities were brought brilliantly to life through the use of vivid opaque colour, intricately applied, sometimes painted over line etchings to achieve particularly fine architectural detail. Drama is provided by small figures—often characters in local dress or tourist onlookers echoing our own position as viewer. Popular subjects were the Forum in Rome, ruined temples at Pompeii and Paestum, the Duomo of Florence, and the spectacular eruptions of Vesuvius. These subjects were a particular draw for British travellers—the largest market for Italian vedute—given 19th-century interests in antiquity and Romantic tastes for mystery and mythology. Crystallised in miniature with such vibrancy, these remarkable Grand Tour sites could become tangible keepsakes to take home and treasure.

COA
+ Artwork Details

Dimensions: Height: 35cm (13.78") Width: 60cm (23.62")

Presented: Unframed.

Medium: Oil

Age: Late 19th-century

Signed: No.

Inscribed: No.

Dated: --

Condition: Some toning across the canvas as shown. Some minor scattered marks, and toning mark to the periphery, which could be covered with a frame. Tiny repaired hole at the centre-right. Please see photos for detail.

Stock number: KD-883