.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This plein air study of Vesuvius is part of a series of some 60 paintings of the volcano executed by de Nittis between 1871 and 1873. It stands out for the technical inventiveness that allows the artist to render a work of extraordinary atmosphere with great economy of means.
De Nittis's painting is rendered in a restricted and subtle tonal harmony of black, greys and white, set in contraposto against the bare wood grain, which describes the bulk of the volcano. The paint defines only the gulleys, a few parts of the foreground, and the sea and sky beyond. The resulting composition is almost abstract, and profoundly modern, both in appearance and sensitivity, whilst never losing the spontaneity that is the essence of a plein air painting. Indeed, the sense of light, for which de Nittis is so famed, is here both immediate and striking, the sun throwing its light onto the mountain from the upper right, as is clear from the dots of shadow cast across the gulleys.
De Nittis recorded in his memoirs the long treks he made each day to record his impressions of the mountain: 'for nearly a year I climbed Vesuvius to work. And every day on needed six hours on horseback to get there and back, and to make the final climb to the crater on the shoulders of our guides.' Once there, he worked up his sketches on small panels similar in size to the present work, all of which share the same sense of immediacy. Some of these were worked into larger and more finished canvases of Vesuvius, two of which were submitted by de Nittis to the Paris Salon of 1872.
De Nittis's painting is rendered in a restricted and subtle tonal harmony of black, greys and white, set in contraposto against the bare wood grain, which describes the bulk of the volcano. The paint defines only the gulleys, a few parts of the foreground, and the sea and sky beyond. The resulting composition is almost abstract, and profoundly modern, both in appearance and sensitivity, whilst never losing the spontaneity that is the essence of a plein air painting. Indeed, the sense of light, for which de Nittis is so famed, is here both immediate and striking, the sun throwing its light onto the mountain from the upper right, as is clear from the dots of shadow cast across the gulleys.
De Nittis recorded in his memoirs the long treks he made each day to record his impressions of the mountain: 'for nearly a year I climbed Vesuvius to work. And every day on needed six hours on horseback to get there and back, and to make the final climb to the crater on the shoulders of our guides.' Once there, he worked up his sketches on small panels similar in size to the present work, all of which share the same sense of immediacy. Some of these were worked into larger and more finished canvases of Vesuvius, two of which were submitted by de Nittis to the Paris Salon of 1872.