Pierre-Jacques Volaire

Private collection, France;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 8 December 2004, lot 52.

E. Beck Saiello, Pierre Jacques Volaire dit le Chevalier Volaire, Paris 2010, p. 241, no. P.90.

The catalogue illustration is representative. The signed canvas has an old relining. On the reverse a patch has been fixed which corresponds to a restored hole upper right. To the naked eye the paint surface is in very good condition with the impasto superbly intact. Some retouching has been applied to the figures lower right particularly the furthermost standing figure to the left. Inspection under Ultraviolet light shows some scattered retouching in the darker tones of the eruption, scattered in the sky, in the darker tones of the figures and more extensively in the daker areas of the lower right corner. Offered in a later reproduction carved wooden frame in good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This impressive, upright view of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius was painted by Volaire in the middle of his Neapolitan period. It depicts the eruption of 1779 and was painted at a time in the artist’s career when he had established himself as the pre-eminent painter of volcanic scenes in Naples. His sensationalist images were largely aimed at, and highly sought after by, the constant flow of Grand Tourists who visited the city and its environs.

In the second half of the 18^th century Mount Vesuvius entered an intense phase of seismic activity. This sustained period of eruptions coincided with Volaire’s arrival in Naples in 1769. Eruptions occurred in 1771, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776 and 1779 and it is difficult to date many of Volaire’s depictions of Vesuvius on account of the frequency of these eruptions.  Volaire painted an identifiable group of at least nine upright views, including the present painting, looking toward the mountain from across the Gulf of Naples, all of which Émilie Beck Saiello dates to after 1779.¹ The tall column of lava is characteristic of the 1779 eruption and differs from the earlier eruptions of the decade, which were noted for their wider lava flows. As with the present painting, each of these views depicts a group of animated figures silhouetted against the night sky watching the mountain erupt in a column of lava, with a rowing boat in the water beyond.  A preparatory study for this group of figures was sold New York, Sotheby’s, 14 January 1987, lot 135.

1. É. Beck Saiello, Pierre Jacques Volaire, Paris 2010, pp. 238-242, cat. nos. P85-93.