FDA-D.1708-2023
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.1708-2023
Object type
Identification
Title
Vesuvius
Title Type
Common name
Description
Drawn landscape view of the mouth of a volcano with rising ash cloud
Comments
Despite being based in Rome, the painter, critic and printmaker Giulio Sartorio grew familiar with the work of the British Pre-Raphaelite artists through illustrations in art journals and the photogravure reproductions of Frederick Hollyer. Sartorio visited London in 1893, where he befriended William Morris’s architect, Philip Webb (1831–1915). Webb introduced him to Morris himself. Returning to England the following year, Sartorio viewed Ford Maddox Brown’s murals in Manchester Town Hall. He later wrote a series of articles on the Pre-Raphaelite painters including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones, whose studio he visited. This Pre-Raphaelite influence is evident in Sartorio’s remarkable pastel drawing of Vesuvius. He made several studies of the active volcano following a journey to the summit in1892. Sartorio later sent photographs of his Vesuvius works to Webb, who described ‘the beautifully given effects of white, and sombre vapour peculiar to the singular impression of horror raised even by the after results of irruption…’. Sartorio exhibited two pastels, both titled Summit of Vesuvius, at the first exhibition of the Pastel Society in London, in 1899.
Description
Content (place)
Italy
Dimensions
height (actual size): 251mm
width (actual size): 592mm
width (actual size): 592mm
Inscription
Signed and dated upper right: 'G. A. Sartorio 1892'
Material
paper
pastel
pastel
Materials & techniques note
Pastel on paper
Production
Person
Date
1892
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College
Exhibited: possibly The Pastel Society, 1899, catalogue number 80 or 84; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
Exhibited: possibly The Pastel Society, 1899, catalogue number 80 or 84; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024
