Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri

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Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Private Collection / Photo: Matthew Hollow
title=Credit line
Artist
Richard Wilson (1713/14-1782)
Title
Lake Avernus and the Island of Capri
Date
c.1757-60
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Metric: 51 x 68.5 cm
Imperial: 20 1/16 x 27 in.
Collection
Private Collection, London
Wilson Online Reference
P93C
Description
The view is taken from a classic vantage point west of Pozzuoli, looking south across Lake Avernus, the Lucrine Lake behind and the narrow isthmus dividing the latter from the Bay of Baiae. In the background are the island of Capri, and on the extreme left, Vesuvius.
Provenance
Dawson Auctions, Unit 8, Cordwallis Park, Clivemont Road, Maidenhead | SL6 7BU May 2023 (258); Private Collection, London
Signature/inscription
Unsigned; no inscription
Verso inscriptions
[1] Printed Stamp: LECHERTIER BARBE & CO | 60 REGENT'S QUADRANT | LONDON.
Subject
Lake Avernus, to the west on Naples, near Pozzuoli, lies in the volcanic region of the Phlegraean ('Burning') Fields. In classical mythology this was the site of the Underworld or Hades. The entrance to Hades was said to lie in a nearby grotto, inhabited by the prophetess known as the Cumaean Sibyl. In Virgil's epic poem, The Aeneid, the Sibyl helps Aeneas, the Trojan prince, to enter the Underworld. There his father's ghost foretells his destiny as the founder of the Roman nation. Such associations made Lake Avernus a major attraction for landscape artists and travellers on the Grand Tour. The semi-ruined Temple of Apollo on the eastern shore of the lake to the left, was believed in Wilson's day to have been dedicated to Juno or Proserpina. In the left foreground is the cavern of the Cumaean Sibyl.
Related Drawings
D257 Lake Avernus, Monte Nuovo, the Island of Capri and Part of Baiae, The British Museum
Related Prints
E85 Joseph Clayton Bentley after Wilson, Lake Avernus, The British Museum
E85A Joseph Clayton Bentley after Wilson, Lake Avernus, National Museum Wales, Cardiff
Related Works by Other Artists
[1] J.M.W. Turner, Aeneas and the Sibyl, Lake Avernus, c. 1798, Tate, London (N00463)
[2] Giovanni Battista Lusieri, View of Lake Averno, watercolour, 1786, Christie's New York, 29 January 2015 (112)
Critical commentary
The tonalities are quite different from P93 and P93A but stylistically and technically this recently discovered painting has every appearance of an authentic repetition of the subject by Wilson.
Bibliography
Not in WGC
Link to WG Constable Archive Record
#http://calmview.co.uk/paulmelloncentre/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=WGC%2f1%2f1%2f79 WGC/1/1/79]
More Information
Between 1752 and 1756 Wilson visited the area several times, working mainly out of doors around the Bay of Pozzuoli and at Lakes Agnano and Avernus.
Condition/Conservation
Relined in the second half of the nineteenth century, presumably by Lechertier Barbe & Co. (see stamp verso) who traded from 60, Regent's Quadrant (later Street), London from 1849 to 1898.