Alessandro La Volpe, View of Capri, Bay of Naples, 1889, Oil on Canvas

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Alessandro La Volpe (circa 1820-1887) "View of Capri, Bay of Naples" Oil on canvas Signed lower right and dated 29.5 … Read more Alessandro La Volpe (circa 1820-1887) "View of Capri, Bay of Naples" Oil on canvas Signed lower right and dated 29.5 x 62.5 cm Restorations A variant of our painting from 1889 is held in the O'Higginiano Museum of Fine Arts in Talca (inv. no. 1148) Alessandro La Volpe was a 19th-century Italian landscape painter who focused primarily on Italian landscapes and monuments. He was a master at capturing the bright light and dry climate of his native Italy. Born in Lucera in 1819, he was the son of an employee of the Royal College. After completing his studies, La Volpe moved to Naples and enrolled at the Accademia delle Belle Arti, where he studied under Salvatore Fergola (1799–1874), the official ceremonial painter for the French monarchy in Naples. La Volpe began exhibiting in Naples in 1848. In 1850, he was sent to Sicily and Egypt on an official mission with the Prince of Lichtenberg to record important monuments; the assignment of such a mission reveals the appreciation for La Volpe's meticulous attention to detail, as well as his skill as an accomplished painter. Upon returning to Italy, he settled in Florence, where he helped found the Scuola di Staggia, a school of Romantic landscape painters. Painting en plein air in the 1850s and 1860s, his work was characterized by a tendency to depict identifiable, usually picturesque, locations in the Tuscan countryside, focusing on specific features and everyday aspects. The Scuola di Staggia is significant for having been one of the first cases in Tuscany of a group of artists painting together from life, a practice that greatly influenced the Macchiaioli circle and brought Tuscan artists in tune with their mid-century contemporaries in Paris and America. See less