John Wilson Carmichael 1800-1868

John Wilson Carmichael was born and spent his early professional career in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  In the 1830s he began to look for the opportunity to show pictures in London.  In 1835 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, with a work entitled Saving the Crew of a Wreck - Scene, Scarborough Bay.  This was followed in 1838 by the present painting - Shipping in the Bay of Naples - which appeared at the society of British Artists.  In 1841 Carmichael resumed as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and four years later his metropolitan reputation was sufficiently well established to allow him to move to London.

Carmichael did travel to study the type of coastal subjects that were his stock in trade, notably on one occasion to the Baltic when commissioned to provide engraved illustrations for Illustrated London News.  He seemed, however, never to have visited the Mediterranean, and the present painting must therefore have been constructed on the basis of sketches and paintings of Naples by other artists.  In like spirit he is known to have painted views of Venice which depended for their topographical accuracy on paintings by Canaletto which he had studied in collections in the north-east.

Shipping in the Bay of Naples shows a large Algerian xebec in the centre, surrounded by smaller Neapolitan merchant craft.  In the distance is seen a British naval frigate, a reminder that Naples had been a frequent port of call for ships of the Royal Navy since 1798 when Nelson called there to revictual and make repairs after the Battle of the Nile.