Anton Sminck van Pitloo

After a three-year study visit to Paris, made possible by a scholarship from Louis Bonaparte, Pitloo stayed in Rome from 1811, where he socialised with his Dutch painter colleagues Abraham Teerlink, Hendrik Voogd and Martin Verstappen. Towards the end of 1814, Pitloo followed the Russian diplomat Count Gregorio Vladimir Orloff to Naples, where he opened a private painting school in his house in the Vico del Vasto in Chiaia around 1820, which soon became a focal point for young artists such as Achille Vianelli, Giacinto Gigante, Gabriele Smargiassi and Teodoro Duclère. This gave rise to the "Scuola di Posillipo", which worked towards a renewal of veduta painting and favoured open-air painting. This view of Castel Nuovo with its striking watchtowers, which are vaguely reminiscent of pepper mills, from a pergola covered in vine leaves, was certainly painted en plein-air during this period. The fortress residence, which has been rebuilt several times since 1279 - often also called Maschio Angioino - is flanked on the left by the harbour lighthouse. In the background, the peacefully smoking Mount Vesuvius rises into the sky. The light situation captured is interesting: while the terrace in the foreground, worked with broad brushstrokes without diffuse contours, lies in shadow, the architecture in the centre ground is bathed in bright light and sharply outlined.