The Eruption of Vesuvius is the name of several paintings by the Norwegian artist Johan Christian Dahl, executed from 1820 to 1826. He travelled to Italy in 1820, spending a short time in Rome before moving on to Naples, arriving in time for the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in December that year. He was one of the first to climb the mountain. There are at least seven versions of the painting, three are exhibited in the Danish National Gallery [1] in Copenhagen, in the Kode Museum [2] in Bergen, and the final one in Städel Museum [3] in Frankfurt.
Dahl also painted several similar paintings of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, such as View of Vesuvius from Villa Quisisana (1820) at the National Museum in Stockholm and the Bay of Naples in the moonlight and Vesuvius in the eruption (1821) at Thorvaldsen's Museum in Copenhagen. Magnificent natural scenes appealed to the art collectors of the time, which also explains Dahl's large production of paintings by Vesuvuis. Dahl painted almost exclusively landscapes and, together with his friend Caspar David Friedrich, was a leading figure in Romantic painting.
Mount Vesuvius is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.
Joseph Wright, styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".
Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye was a Danish painter, known both for genre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of the Golden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century.
Johan Ludwig Gebhard Lund was a Danish painter, born in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein, to master painter Hans Giewert Lund and his wife Maria Magdalena Christina Bremer. An adherent of romanticism, he is known for his history paintings.
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl, often known as J. C. Dahl or I. C. Dahl, was a Danish-Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting. He is often described as "the father of Norwegian landscape painting" and is regarded as the first Norwegian painter to reach a level of artistic accomplishment comparable to that attained by the greatest European artists of his day. He was also the first to acquire genuine fame and cultural renown abroad. As one critic has put it, "J.C. Dahl occupies a central position in Norwegian artistic life of the first half of the 19th century.
The Villa Poppaea is an ancient luxurious Roman seaside villa located in Torre Annunziata between Naples and Sorrento, in Southern Italy. It is also called the Villa Oplontis or Oplontis Villa A. as it was situated in the ancient Roman town of Oplontis.
Boscoreale is an Italian comune (municipality) and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 27,457 in 2011. Located in the Vesuvius National Park, under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, it is known for the fruit and vineyards of Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio. There is also a fine Vesuvian lava stone production.
Boscotrecase is a town and municipality of 9,790 inhabitants in the metropolitan city of Naples in Campania, Italy.
Giorgio Sommer (1834–1914) was one of Europe’s most important and prolific photographers of the 19th century. Active from 1857 to 1888, he produced thousands of images of archeological ruins, landscapes, art objects and portraits.
Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town, located in the modern-day comune of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Thomas Fearnley was a Norwegian romantic painter, a pupil of Johan Christian Dahl and a leading representative of Norwegian romantic nationalism in painting. His son Thomas Fearnley (1841–1927) founded the Fearnley dynasty of shipping magnates.
Ernst Fries was a German painter, draftsman, watercolourist, etcher, printmaker, and lithograph. Besides Karl Philipp Fohr and Carl Rottmann, he was the youngest of the so-called triumvirate of Heidelberg Romanticism. His works represent a transition from Romanticism to Realism.
Vesuvius in Eruption is the subject of a series of thirty paintings and at least one preliminary sketch by Joseph Wright of Derby, who travelled in Italy in the years 1773-1775. It appears that whilst Wright was in Italy Vesuvius was not erupting.
The School of Posillipo refers to a loose group of landscape painters, based in the waterfront Posillipo neighborhood of Naples, Italy. While some among them became academicians, it was not a formal school or association.
Jan van Essen, was a Flemish painter known for his seascapes. After training in Antwerp, he worked in Italy, particularly in Rome and Naples.
The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum is a large 1822 painting by English artist John Martin of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It follows the pattern set by his previous successful painting, Belshazzar's Feast, which was another depiction of a dramatic scene from history delivered from an esoteric point of view. The work appeared to be lost from the Tate Gallery storerooms soon after it was damaged by the 1928 Thames flood. However, it was rediscovered in 1973 and subsequently restored in 2011.
Vesuvius from Posillipo by Moonlight was painted by Joseph Wright of Derby in 1774. It is an oil painting of Mount Vesuvius in the distance, from the coastal shores of Naples at night. Dark grey smoke spews from the glowing red crater of the volcano and fills up the top right of the canvas, in contrast to the pale glow of moonlight to the left. Known as a "Painter of Light," Wright liked to play with highlights and shadows in his works and was most well known for his "Candlelight Pictures," landscape or genre scenes depicting dramatic contrasts between light and dark. Through utilizing this technique, Joseph Wright exhibits the sublimity of nature in Vesuvius from Posillipo by Moonlight as well as his other paintings of Mt. Vesuvius.
Winter at the Sognefjord is a painting by the Norwegian artist Johan Christian Dahl from 1827.
Shipwreck on the Norwegian Coast or Shipwreck on the Coast of Norway is an 1832 marine painting by Johan Christian Dahl. It is now in the National Gallery of Norway, to which it was left in 1931 by Louise and Johannes G. Heftye.
Copenhagen Harbor by Moonlight is a mid-19th century painting by Norwegian artist Johan Christian Dahl. Done in oil on canvas, the painting depicts the Copenhagen waterfront at night. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.