The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 27, 2023

Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples from a Cave

1820

Adolf von Heydeck

(German, 1787–1856)

Germany, 19th century

Watercolor with graphite; framing lines in pen and black ink

Support: Cream wove paper laid down on gray-blue laid paper (artist's mount?)

Sheet: 26.9 x 37.9 cm (10 9/16 x 14 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.5 x 37.9 cm (10 13/16 x 14 15/16 in.)

Gift of the John B. Putnam Foundation 1968.69

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Mount Vesuvius was almost continuously active at the time that Adolf von Heydeck visited Naples, and erupted just two years after this drawing was completed.

Description

Adolf von Heydeck worked in Rome and later traveled south to Naples. This drawing presents that city’s most distinctive attraction: Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano that appears against an otherwise calm sky. Von Heydeck portrayed the scene from within a cave interior, contrasting the potentially overwhelming force of nature with the illusion of protection offered by distance and enclosed space.

Inscriptions

Inscription

inscribed on secondary support [by artist?], lower right, in graphite: al Posilipo A Napoli 1820; on verso of secondary support, upper left, in graphite: 44/ ; upper left, in graphite: Al Posilipo a Napoli

Inscription

unidentified collector's mark, verso of secondary support, upper right, stamped in blue ink: H [illegible] [surrounded by an oval double border]

Provenance
?-1968
(C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
1968-
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Porzio, Annalisa and Marina Causa Picone. Goethe e i suoi interlocutori. Exh. Cat. Naples: Palazzo Reale, 1983. Mentioned: p. 167, no. 56; Reproduced: p. 225
Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

German Drawings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 1-July 13, 1980).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983).

Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984).

The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993).

Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004).

The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-July 7, 2013).

Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.69