Michela de Vito Costume di St Caterina, Province of Calabria in the Kingdom of Naples

Michela de Vito (fl.1820s/30s)

Michela de Vito (fl.1820s/30s), a native of Abruzzo, was active in Naples in the first half of the 19th century. She is believed to be either the daughter or sister of the celebrated painter of Neapolitan gouaches, Camillo de Vito (fl.1790–1835).

Her work has sometimes been ascribed to a male Michele de Vito, likely due to the rarity of women artists working professionally at this time. Little is known about her life, but in recent years the art historians De Rosa and Trastulli have described her as 'A refined painter, very skilled when it came to drawings, she had the characteristic to make her subject more gentle, compared to her male colleagues'.

Michela de Vito typically produced watercolours depicting popular figures, costumes and scenes from different regions of Italy. She most frequently depicted subjects from within the historic Kingdom of Naples, a state which ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States. Her colourful and idealised depictions, drawn with exquisite delicacy, would have greatly appealed to Grand Tour collectors, and leave a rich record of local character in early 19th century Italy.

Works by Michela de Vito are in the collection of the British Museum, London.