Carlo Bonavia

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg who is an independent expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. Landscape on left with Ship at lower right corner: The painting appears in a very good condition. The original canvas appears in good condition, lined onto a secondary open weave canvas and attached to a stretcher. The overall tension is good. There are minor planar deformations along the lower edge; these are due to debris behind the stretcher bars. The paint layers are in good condition. There are no recent significant damages or losses; there is a small loss to the paint and ground layers in the lower left corner, although this appears to have been caused by mechanical damages behind the stretcher bar. The slight raised craqulure texture in the paint layer is stable; these are not vulnerable to further loss. There is evidence of a recent and comprehensive restoration campaign. Examination under ultra violet shows that the majority of the over-paint is located in the sky. The old damages and the open canvas weave have all been retouched. There is a layer of modern varnish present. Landscape on the right hand side: The painting appears in a very good condition. The canvas is in good condition; the original canvas has been lined onto a secondary open weave as before and stretched onto a stretcher. The overall tension is adequate. The paint layers are in good condition, as before the painting has been recently restored and there are multiple areas of retouching present across old damages and abrasions in the open canvas weave. Under ultra violet light there is also an area of bright fluorescence in the lower right corner. Overall the over-paint is neither visually disturbing nor detrimental to the enjoyment of the image. The repaired damages are not in any of the principle areas of the composition. There is a modern varnish layer present.
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Little biographical information is known about Carlo Bonavia though we deduce from his large output of paintings that he was certainly working in Naples between 1751 and 1788, the years of his earliest and latest dated works. By the mid-eighteenth century he was the most internationally acclaimed Neapolitan landscape painter and his work attracted the attention of many of the Grand Tourists passing through Naples, including Lord Brudenell, who commissioned an Eruption of Vesuvius (signed and dated 1757; Lord Montagu Collection, Beaulieu).

Bonavia's early work points to a training in the landscape tradition of Salvator Rosa but it is clear from the present works that he soon convincingly adapted to the style of Claude-Joseph Vernet (1715-1789), who is known to have been in Naples between 1737 and 1746, and with whom his work has often been confused in the past. Like Vernet, Bonavia often produced works in pairs, exploring the effects of light and weather on a landscape. Indeed, the soft pastel colours and the warm light of these Mediterranean coastal scenes illustrate Bonavia's close absorption of Vernet's Rococo approach to landscape and mirror the Frenchman's style both through their imaginary setting and low compositional point of view. Despite the accurate representation of the rocky coastline around Naples, the works portray an emotional reaction to the surrounding atmosphere and focus on a suggestive response to the landscape rather than a precise description of it.