# Last Day of Pompei [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BRYULLOV, Karl Pavlovich]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 466 x 651 cm ## Commentary Last Day of Pompei 1833 Oil on canvas, 466 x 651 cm State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg In St Petersburg the Russian painter Bryullov was among the many Romantics who turned anew to the ruins of Pompeii - originally discovered in 1748 but now the subject of fresh study and excavation - for the quintessential subject of a civilization at the point of destruction. His huge Last Day of Pompeii was finished in 1833, a year before Lord Lytton published his famous novel on the same theme. That Pompeii was obliterated by a natural catastrophe, suggestive of divine retribution, only added to its significance. ## Related artworks - [Bathsheba]() - [Italian Midday]() - [Portrait of Princess Elezabeta Pavlovna Saltykova]() - [Princess Yuliya Pavlovna Samoilova Leaving a Ball with Adopted Daughter Amacilia Pacini]() - [The Rider]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()