The Eruption of Vesuvius in December 1820, 1826

About the Work

In all their massive immediacy, the Earth’s primordial forces pour forth in glowing hot lava. The Norwegian landscapist Dahl, professor at the Dresden Kunstakademie (Academy of Fine Arts) and a close friend of Caspar David Friedrich, witnessed this natural spectacle during a stay in Naples in 1820/21. Fascinated, he climbed the volcano several times to make sketches, which later served as the basis for a number of oil paintings. For visitors to Naples, the ascent of Mount Vesuvius had represented the culmination of their educational tour of the South since the early eighteenth century.