The family legend states that the painting ‘Gulf of Naples’ was acquired by EvgEniy of Boratynskiy during a journey to Naples in 1844. He wrote in a letter to his friend Nikolai Putyata: ‘We have already seen the surrounding areas: Pozzuoli, Baia, Castellammare, Sorrento, Amalfi, Salerno, Paestum, Herculaneum, Pompei… I understand the artists who need Italy. This lighting… under this beautiful sky. Only here can a painter and a drawing artist develop…. We are staying here for two or three months’. The poet’s plans were not destined to be fulfilled; he died in Naples on July 11, 1844.
The painting is a marine landscape. Its author is unknown. The canvas depicts the coast of the Gulf of Naples on a bright sunny day. In the background behind the haze one can see Mount Vesuvius, and to the right is the coast of the city of Sorrento.
The painting is a marine landscape. Its author is unknown. The canvas depicts the coast of the Gulf of Naples on a bright sunny day. In the background behind the haze one can see Mount Vesuvius, and to the right is the coast of the city of Sorrento.
In the early decades of the 19th century, Naples became the centre of artistic life. During this period, the School of Posillipo was founded. The artists belonging to it appealed in their work to unappreciated motives and urban species. Their work reflected the serenity of the Southern nature and a quiet human existence. They’re full of light, air, fresh sea wind.
The painting ‘Gulf of Naples’ is in keeping with these works, in particular the works of Giacinto Gigante, a famous romantic who mainly painted landscapes. He liked to portray quiet coastal villages, solitary paths, fishing boats near the shore.
Travelers visiting Naples were eager to buy paintings with views of the city, created in the same style as the painting ‘Gulf of Naples’. One could accurately guess by these works the taste of the customers, who wanted not just a souvenir, but also to preserve the felicitous atmosphere found everywhere in Italian nature.
The painting ‘Gulf of Naples’ is in keeping with these works, in particular the works of Giacinto Gigante, a famous romantic who mainly painted landscapes. He liked to portray quiet coastal villages, solitary paths, fishing boats near the shore.
Travelers visiting Naples were eager to buy paintings with views of the city, created in the same style as the painting ‘Gulf of Naples’. One could accurately guess by these works the taste of the customers, who wanted not just a souvenir, but also to preserve the felicitous atmosphere found everywhere in Italian nature.
‘We have been carried as if on wings’, - Boratynskiy told his friend in a letter, - ‘from the complex social life of Europe into the lush vegetative life of Italy, which for all its merits should be marked on the map as a special part of the world’.
