Naples: Street Scene with a Sulphurous Water Vendor, ca. 1880 – 1890

About the Work

Naples held great appeal for tourists not only because of its charming coastal scenery and awe-inspiring Mount Vesuvius, but also thanks to its customs and traditions. Particularly from the 1880s onwards, Italian-based photographers increasingly marketed studies of human beings that shaped and continually fuelled the cliché of the poor but carefree population of Southern Italy. With his outsider’s perspective on the Italian culture, the native Frankfurter Giorgio Sommer contributed to shaping the visual habits of tourists. In one series he captured purported street scenes such as this one with a sulphurous water vendor. Owing to its cleansing effect, sulphurous water was recommended to tourists for internal application. The Baedeker travel guides described street trading as one of the city’s distinctive features, thus creating the basis for yet another cliché.