The eruption of the Vesuvius

Famous for his moonlit landscapes and pictures depicting Mount Vesuvius, Michael Wutky's career began at the Vienna Academy, which he joined in 1755. Just over ten years later, he became a member of the newly-founded Imperial Drawings Academy. In 1771, he travelled to Italy, visiting Trieste, Padua, Venice and Rome. It was in Rome that he became acquainted with the artists, John Robert Cozens (1752-1798), Thomas Jones (1742-1803) and Louis-Rodolphe Ducros (1748-1810). In 1781-2, he was commissioned by Marcantonio Borghese to work alongside Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807) and Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) on the decoration of the Villa Princiana, Rome.

The expansion of scientific curiosity and knowledge in the Age of Enlightment led to a considerable degree of fascination with volcanoes, particularly amongst natural philosophers in France and England. Mount Vesuvius became a popular destination for tourists and artists alike towards the end of the eighteenth century. Michael Wutky is documented on one expedition to Vesuvius, with Sir William Hamilton in 1779, after the great eruption of the volcano in that year. In the 1984 exhibition catalogue [op. cit.], Ronald de Leeuw suggests that the small figure of the artist startled by the eruption, might be Wutky himself. He compares the present lot to Wutky's painting in the Kunstmuseum in Basel of circa 1780.