# Eruption of the Vesuvius [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [DAHL, Johan Christian Clausen]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 93 x 138 cm ## Commentary Eruption of the Vesuvius c. 1823 Oil on canvas, 93 x 138 cm Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo In 1820, Dahl made an Italian journey. Staying only briefly in Rome, where the weight of tradition oppressed him, he concentrated on Naples, where the natural scene revealed itself to him in all its multifarity of form and abundance of light. Dahl became completely engrossed in a study of colour nuances and effects of illumination. He had little contact with the German artists working in Italy, meeting frequently only Franz Catel, who may have introduced him to Turner's watercolour landscapes, which were exhibited in Rome in 1819. Dahl looked upon the fresh, spontaneous studies he made in the environs of Naples solely as preliminary works for subsequent oils. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in December 1820, he was among the first to climb the volcano in order to see and depict the phenomenon at first hand. The Oslo painting goes back to this experience. Already in the eighteenth century, depictions of Vesuvius erupting were among the most popular subjects of pictorial reportage, intended not only to satisfy a public thirst for sensations but to embody the aesthetic ideals of the sublime and the picturesque. ## Related artworks - [Cloud Study, Thunder Clouds over the Palace Tower at Dresden]() - [Cloud Study with Horizon]() - [Dyrehaven near Copenhagen]() - [Eruption of the Volcano Vesuvius]() - [Morning after a Stormy Night]() - [Mountain Landscape with a Castle]() - [Two Belfries at Sunset, Copenhagen]() - [View of Dresden at Full Moon]() - [Winter Landscape near Vordingborg, Denmark]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()