Joseph Rebell

(1787 - 1828)

Attribuito a

It belongs quite precisely to a very well-known group of night views of Vesuvius in eruption, executed around 1820/30 by our artist.

Several characteristic elements allow us to attribute it to Rebell: Vesuvius with its very tall incandescent column, the full moon that creates a second cold light source, the gulf and the landscape immersed in blue and the terrace with small figures in costume.

Rebell worked on the contrast between the fiery red of the eruption and the moonlight, repeating this theme and introducing small variations.

Particularly interesting is the comparison with «Vesuvius eruption at night overlooking the school of Virgil», dated 1822. Looking at the lower right margin at high resolution, a possible inscription can be seen , but what makes us consider this attribution certain is the quality of execution of the figures, of the distant architecture, of the vegetation and above all the way in which the lights are constructed.

So there is no generic attribution of a landscape to a painter who occasionally depicted Vesuvius, but rather we are faced with a theme specifically present in his corpus.

Card reported at the bottom of the manuscript