Carlo Bonavia (active Naples 1751-1788)

A view of the coast of Posillipo and the bay of Naples, with fishermen and other figures in the foreground, Mount Vesuvius in the distance

Details

Carlo Bonavia (active Naples 1751-1788)
A view of the coast of Posillipo and the bay of Naples, with fishermen and other figures in the foreground, Mount Vesuvius in the distance
signed and dated 'C. Bonavia f. A. 1760' (lower left, on the rock)
oil on canvas
27 3/8 x 51 1/8 in. (69.5 x 129.9 cm.)

Provenance

with the Fine Art Society, London, from whom acquired on 29 April 1949 for £160 by Dr. Herbert Bier, by whom sold on 30 May 1949 for £250 to the following,
Vincent Forte, and by inheritance to his wife
the late Mrs Lilian Forte (1913-2012).

Literature

W.G. Constable, 'Carlo Bonavia', The Art Quarterly, XXII, 1, Spring 1959, pp. 24 and 30-31, no. 13, fig. 8.
W.G. Constable, 'Carlo Bonavia and Some Painters of Vedute in Naples,' in Essays in Honor of Georg Swarzenski, Chicago and Berlin, 1952, p. 202, no. 1 (under 'Other paintings which have come to light more recently').
N. Spinosa and L. Di Mauro, Vedute napoletane del Settecento, Naples, 1993, p. 192, under no. 60.

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Lot Essay

Other versions of this particular view by Bonavia are known, the most celebrated being one commissioned by Count Ernst Guido von Harrach, as a pair to the splendid Natural arch on the coast of Posillipo (Harrach collection, Schloss Rohrau). The villa on the cliff, commonly called 'delle Cannonate' or 'di Lord Napier', still exists, but the structure has been substantially altered since the 18th century.

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