Detail of An Eruption of Vesuvius by Johan Christian Dahl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

An Eruption of Vesuvius
1824


Object Details

Title: An Eruption of Vesuvius

Artist: Johan Christian Dahl (Norwegian, Bergen 1788–1857 Dresden)

Date: 1824

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 37 x 54 3/4 in. (94 x 139.1 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Gift of Christen Sveaas, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2019

Accession Number: 2019.167.1

Dahl visited Vesuvius just before Christmas 1820, to witness its eruptions at close-hand. He immediately made an oil sketch (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen) that served as the basis for the present work, completed four years later for Prince Christian Frederik, later King Christian VIII of Denmark. Vesuvius had attracted artists and Grand Tourists alike since the rediscovery of Pompeii in the mid-eighteenth century, offering a vision of the Sublime that served as a counterpoint to the austerity of Neoclassicism.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/438159