Josef Rebell

A major landscape painter in Austria in the first third of the nineteenth century, Joseph Rebell was one of that generation of artists who turned to nature but still retained a concern for an ordered composition tending towards classicism.

Born in Vienna, Rebell trained there, notably at the Academy of Fine Arts and under Michael Wutky. He left Austria to make an extended journey, over several years, to Switzerland (1809-1810), Milan (1812), Naples (1813-1815), where he worked for Caroline and Joachim Murat, and finally Rome (1816-1824). He returned to Vienna in 1824 at the request of Emperor Francis I, in order to take up the position of director of the imperial gallery in Vienna, at the Belvedere palace. Sadly, he did not hold the post for long, as he died of an illness in 1828.

This previously unknown view of Vesuvius erupting recalls the artist’s time in Naples, between 1813 and 1815. The subject, like the viewpoint, evidently fascinated Rebell and he painted Vesuvius several times, erupting or still, from the same location: the Scuola di Virgilio, one of the localities in Posilippo, facing Vesuvius, exactly opposite the Bay of Naples, offering the most picturesque views of the volcano.

Among these other variations on the theme, one in the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein (inv. GE 1384), painted in 1823, is very close to the present painting. Another, in the Belvedere (inv.-Nr. 11746), is dated 1822. They all have slight variations that enable them to be distinguished from each other.

Here, Joseph Rebell clearly moves away from the classical model and presents a more Romantic vision, close to the concept of the Sublime. Nature is unleashed, its drama accentuated by the contrasting effects of the burning lava’s glow and the cold white moonlight, both reflecting in the rocks and crashing waves in the foreground.