(Arnhem 1790–1837 Naples)
Naples, a View of the Riviera di Chiaia seen from Mergellina, signed, dated Pitloo. 1827 Napoli, oil on canvas, 50 x 77 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Italy

Several versions of this composition exist in varying sizes, the best of which is most probably the present lot. It is considered the prime original (1827). A smaller version (1829) is in the collection of the Province of Naples, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue “I capolavori della citta metropolitana di Napoli”, 2015-2016 and another version (1833) in a private collection is illustrated in the exhibition book “Pitloo – Luci e colori del paesaggio napoletano”, 2004-2005.

Born in Arnhem, Anton Smink Pitloo won the Prix de Rome in 1808, which allowed him to study in Paris for two years and in Rome for one. He studied in Paris between 1808-10 with the plein air artists Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846) and Jean-Victor Bertin (1767-1842). He then moved to Rome and settled in Naples in 1815, where he spent the rest of his life. There he specialised in plein air painting. He established a private Academy of Fine-Arts in 1820 and became Professor of landscape painting for the Bourbon’s Royal Institute of Fine Arts in 1824. He founded with Giacinto Gigante a school of landscape painting called The School of Posillipo, named after the area of Naples where he lived. The artist played a significant role in the development of Neapolitan landscape painting during the first half of the nineteenth century. Aiming to capture Neapolitan everyday life, he painted everything from nature, including figures based on people he had observed directly, as can be admired in the present lot.